C 1

CThis article is about the letter of the alphabet. For other uses, see C (disambiguation).For technical reasons, "C#" redirects here. For C-sharp, see C-sharp (disambiguation).

ISO basicLatin

alphabet

Aa Bb Cc Dd

Ee Ff Gg Hh

Ii Jj Kk Ll

Mm Nn Oo Pp

Qq Rr Ss Tt

Uu Vv Ww Xx

Yy Zz

v t e [1]

Cursive script 'c' and capital 'C'

C (named cee /si/[2]) is the third letter in the ISO basic Latinalphabet.

C 2

C in copyright symbol

History

Phoeniciangaml

Arabicm

Hebrewgimel

GreekGamma

EtruscanC

OldLatinC (G)

'C' comes from the same letter as 'G'. The Semites named it gimel. The sign is possibly adapted from an Egyptianhieroglyph for a staff sling, which may have been the meaning of the name gimel. Another possibility is that itdepicted a camel, the Semitic name for which was gamal. Barry B. Powell, a specialist in the history of writing,states "It is hard to imagine how gimel = "camel" can be derived from the picture of a camel (it may show his hump,or his head and neck!)".In the Etruscan language, plosive consonants had no contrastive voicing, so the Greek '' (Gamma) was adopted intothe Etruscan alphabet to represent /k/. Already in the Western Greek alphabet, Gamma first took a ' ' form in EarlyEtruscan, then ' ' in Classical Etruscan. In Latin it eventually took the 'c' form in Classical Latin. In the earliestLatin inscriptions, the letters 'c k q' were used to represent the sounds /k/ and // (which were not differentiated inwriting). Of these, 'q' was used to represent /k/ or // before a rounded vowel, 'k' before 'a', and 'c' elsewhere. Duringthe 3rd century BC, a modified character was introduced for //, and 'c' itself was retained for /k/. The use of 'c' (andits variant 'g') replaced most usages of 'k' and 'q'. Hence, in the classical period and after, 'g' was treated as theequivalent of Greek gamma, and 'c' as the equivalent of kappa; this shows in the romanization of Greek words, as in'KAMO', 'KYPO', and 'KI' came into Latin as 'cadmvs', 'cyrvs' and 'phocis', respectively.Other alphabets have letters homoglyphic to 'c' but not in use and derivation, like the Cyrillic letter Es (, ) whichderives from the lunate sigma, named due to its resemblance to the crescent moon.

Later useWhen the Roman alphabet was introduced into Britain, 'c' represented only /k/ and this value of the letter has beenretained in loanwords to all the insular Celtic languages: in Welsh, Irish, Gaelic, 'c' represents only /k/. The OldEnglish or "Anglo-Saxon" writing was learned from the Celts, apparently of Ireland; hence 'c' in Old English alsooriginally represented /k/; the Modern English words kin, break, broken, thick, and seek, all come from Old Englishwords written with 'c': cyn, brecan, brocen, icc, and soc. But during the course of the Old English period, /k/before front vowels (/e/ and /i/) were palatalized, having changed by the tenth century to [t], though 'c' was stillused, as in cir(i)ce, wrecc(e)a. On the continent, meanwhile, a similar phonetic change had also been going on (forexample, in Italian).In Vulgar Latin, /k/ became palatalized to [t] in Italy and Dalmatia; in France and the Iberian peninsula, it became [ts]. Yet for these new sounds c was still used before front vowels e, i. The letter thus represented two distinct

C 3

values. Subsequently, the Latin phoneme /k/ (spelled qv) de-labialized to /k/ meaning that the various Romancelanguages had /k/ before front vowels. In addition, Norman used the Greek letter 'k' so that the sound /k/ could berepresented by either 'k' or 'c' the latter of which could represent either /k/ or /ts/ depending on whether it preceded afront vowel or not. The convention of using both c' and 'k' was applied to the writing of English after the NormanConquest, causing a considerable re-spelling of the Old English words. Thus while Old English candel, clif, corn,crop, c, remained unchanged, Cent, c (c), cyng, brece, soce, were now (without any change of sound)spelled 'Kent', 'ke', 'kyng', 'breke', and 'seoke'; even cniht ('knight') was subsequently changed to 'kniht' and ic('thick') changed to 'thik' or 'thikk'. The Old English 'cw' was also at length displaced by the French 'qu' so that theOld English cwn ('queen') and cwic ('quick') became Middle English 'quen' 'quik', respectively. [t] to which OldEnglish palatalized /k/ had advanced, also occurred in French, chiefly from Latin /k/ before 'a'. In French it wasrepresented by 'ch', as in champ (from Latin camp-um) and this spelling was introduced into English: the HattonGospels, written about 1160, have in Matt. i-iii, child, chyld, riche, mychel, for the cild, rice, mycel, of the OldEnglish version whence they were copied. In these cases, the Old English 'c' gave place to 'k qu ch' but, on the otherhand, 'c' in its new value of /ts/ came in largely in French words like processiun, emperice, grace, and was alsosubstituted for 'ts' in a few Old English words, as miltse, bletsien, in early Middle English milce, blecien. By the endof the thirteenth century both in France and England, this sound /ts/ de-affricated to /s/; and from that time 'c' hasrepresented /s/ before front vowels either for etymological reasons, as in lance, cent, or (in defiance ofetymology)Wikipedia:Citation needed to avoid the ambiguity due to the "etymological" use of 's' for /z/, as in ace,mice, once, pence, defence.Thus, to show the etymology, English spelling has advise, devise, instead of advize, devize, which while advice,device, dice, ice, mice, twice, etc., do not reflect etymology; example has extended this to hence, pence, defence, etc.,where there is no etymological necessity for 'c'. Former generations also wrote sence for sense. Hence, today theRomance languages and English have a common feature inherited from Vulgar Latin where 'c' takes on either a"hard" or "soft" value depending on the following vowel.

Use in orthographies

EnglishIn English orthography, 'c' generally represents a "soft" value of /s/ before the vowel letters 'e' (including theLatin-derived digraphs ae and oe), 'i' and 'y' and a "hard" value of /k/ before the vowel letters 'a', 'o' and 'u'. However,there are a number of exceptions in English: "soccer" and "Celt" are words that have /k/ where /s/ would be expected.The soft c may represent the // sound in the digraph 'ci' when this precedes a vowel, as in the words 'delicious' and'appreciate'.The digraph 'ch' most commonly represents /t/, but can take the value /k/ (mainly in words of Greek origin) or //(mainly in words of French origin); some dialects of English also have /x/ in words like loch where other speakerspronounce the final sound as /k/. The trigraph 'tch' always represents /t/.The digraph 'ck' is often used to represent the sound /k/ after short vowels.

C 4

Other languagesIn the Romance languages French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Portuguese, 'c' generally has a "hard" value of /k/and a "soft" value, the pronunciation of which varies by language. In French, Portuguese, and Spanish from LatinAmerica and southern Spain, the soft 'c' value is /s/ as it is in English. In the Spanish spoken in northern and centralSpain, the soft 'c' is a voiceless dental fricative //. In Italian and Romanian, the soft 'c' is [t].All Balto-Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet, as well as Albanian, Hungarian, Pashto, several Samilanguages, Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, and Americanist phonetic notation (and those aboriginal languages of NorthAmerica whose practical orthography derives from it) use 'c' to represent /ts/, the voiceless alveolar or voicelessdental sibilant affricate. In romanized Mandarin Chinese, the letter represents an aspirated version of this sound, /ts/.Among non-European languages that have adopted the Latin alphabet, 'c' represents a variety of sounds. Yup'ik,Indonesian, Malay, and a number of African languages such as Hausa, Fula, and Manding share the soft Italian valueof /t/. In Azeri, Kurdish, Tatar, and Turkish 'c' stands for the voiced counterpart of this sound, the voicedpostalveolar affricate /d/. In Yabem and similar languages, such as Bukawa, 'c' stands for a glottal stop //. Xhosaand Zulu use this letter to represent the click //. in some other African languages, such as Beninese Yoruba, 'c' isused for //. In Fijian, 'c' stands for a voiced dental fricative //, while in Somali it has the value of //.The letter 'c' is also used as a transliteration of the Cyrillic '' in the Latinic forms of Serbian, Macedonian, andsometimes Ukrainian (along with the digraph 'ts').

ChThere are several common digraphs with 'c', the most common being 'ch', which in some languages such as Germanis far more common than 'c' alone. 'Ch' takes various values in other languages, such as: /t / in Spanish // in French and Portuguese /k/ in Interlingua and Italian /x/ in the West Slavic languages (e.g. Polish, Czech and Slovak) /x/ (comprising the mostly allophonic sounds [x] and []) or sometimes /k/ in German /x/ or // in Dutch /t/ in Romanized Standard Chinese

Other digraphs and trigraphsAs in English, 'Ck', with the value /k/, is often used after short vowels in other Germanic languages such as Germanand Swedish (but some other Germanic languages use 'kk' instead, such as Dutch and Norwegian). The digraph 'cz' isfound in Polish and 'cs' in Hungarian, both representing /t/. The digraph 'sc' represents // in Old English, Italian, anda few languages related to Italian, (however in Italian and related languages this only happens before front vowels,otherwise it represents /sk/). The trigraph 'sch' represents // in German.

C 5

Other usageAs a phonetic symbol, lowercase 'c' is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and X-SAMPA symbol for thevoiceless palatal plosive, and capital 'C' is the X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal fricative.It is used to represent one hundred in Roman numerals.

Related letters and other similar characters

: Latin letter C with acute : Latin letter C with circumflex : Latin letter C with caron : Latin letter C with dot above : Latin letter C cedilla : Latin letter C with cedilla and acute : Latin letter C with hook C c: Latin letter C with diaresis : IPA symbol C with back-curl : Cyrillic letter Es identical in shape with the Latin C c, but the equivalent of the Latin S s. : Cyrillic letter Tse

: Roman numeral : stretched C : double struck C : blackletter C : degree Celsius : enclosed C : copyright symbol : cent (currency) : coln (currency) : Brazilian cruzeiro (currency) : Ghana cedi (currency)

Computing codes

Character C cUnicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C LATIN SMALL LETTER C

Encodings decimal hex decimal hex

Unicode 67 U+0043 99 U+0063

UTF-8 67 43 99 63

Numeric character reference C C c c

EBCDIC family 195 C3 131 83

ASCII 1 67 43 99 63

1 Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other representations

NATO phonetic Morse code

Charlie

Signal flag Flag semaphore Brailledots-14

C 6

References[1] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Template:Latin_alphabet_sidebar& action=edit[2] "C" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language,

Unabridged (1993); "cee", op. cit.

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopdia Britannica article C.

Media related to C at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of C at Wiktionary The dictionary definition of c at Wiktionary

Article Sources and Contributors 7

Article Sources and ContributorsC Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=625743926 Contributors: 10014derek, 28421u2232nfenfcenc, 334a, 404notfound, 4pq1injbok, 65.68.87.xxx, A12n, Addshore, Aeon1006,Aeusoes1, Afterwriting, Ahls23, Ahoerstemeier, Akanemoto, Ale jrb, Aleks, Aleph4, Alphachimp, Alsandro, Amalthea, Amateur55, Andonic, Andre Engels, Andrejj, AndrewHowse, Angr,Anomie, Anonymous Dissident, Antandrus, Anthony Appleyard, AntonBryl, Arronsj, Ashdurbat, Ashley Y, Astroangie, Atitarev, BIL, Bagpuss, Battoe19, Beland, Bemoeial, Benbread, BertMacklin, Bgwhite, Bkell, Blathnaid, Bluemask, Bluemoose, Bobo192, Bogdan Nagachop, Bornintheguz, Branddobbe, Brim, Brion VIBBER, Bryan Derksen, Bwefler, CRGreathouse, Cadr,Camembert, Cameron Nedland, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Canadian-Bacon, Caniago, Carbuncle, Cassowary, Catdude, Cee7c4, Cenarium, Ceoil, Chamal N, ChongDae, Chrislk02,Chrisminter, Christian List, Christopherlin, Chun-hian, Cirtur, Ckatz, Closedmouth, Colonies Chris, CommonsDelinker, Conversion script, Convoy of Conwy, Coroboy, Ctw3333, Cwilson90,Cybercobra, Cybersam1243, Cynicism addict, D6, Damian Yerrick, Dan Atkinson, Dandelions, Dante Alighieri, Darrenaustralia, Darth Panda, DePiep, Deckiller, Deconstructhis, Deflective, Delink, Delta G, Delta Tango, Demi, Denelson83, Digana, Dismas, Dissident, Dmeranda, DocendoDiscimus, Docu, Dogz279, Dolo55, Domthedude001, Dougweller, Download, Draco flavus, Dreamout loud, Drugonot, Dylan Lake, Ed g2s, Edemaine, Edwinstearns, Egil, Ekedolphin, Ekren, Electron9, Elljaye, Epbr123, Esanchez7587, Evlekis, F. 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Annoyomous, Kaldari, Karada, Keith Edkins, Ketiltrout, Kevin B12, Khestwol, King of Hearts, Kingmoffa, Kingturtle, Kjhf,Kmoksy, Komap, Kpalion, Ksero, Kuratowski's Ghost, Kuyabribri, Kwamikagami, LN2, Laka2, LarryMac, LeaveSleaves, Lexor, Liftarn, Lighted Match, Ling.Nut, LittleDan, Livajo, LjL,Lnatan25, Loggie, Lorn Pavan, Lowellian, Lubosz, Lucyin, Luigi30, Luk, Luna Santin, Lunaibis, MER-C, MacedonianBoy, Macrakis, Magioladitis, Mahmudmasri, Malo, Man vyi, Manop,Manuel Anastcio, Manumg, Marc Mongenet, Mark Renier, Martarius, Mauls, Maurice Carbonaro, Maxim, Mblumber, Megatech1267, Melesse, Mentisock, Merbabu, Mervyn, Mic, MichaelGreshock, Michael Snow, Midkay, Mike Storm, Mikes1807, Mikespedia, Minority Report, MisfitToys, Mlaskac, Modemac, Modest Genius, Monedula, Mormegil, Morven, Mrwojo, Nakon, NateSilva, Neelix, Nema Fakei, NeonMerlin, NerdyScienceDude, Neurillon, Node ue, Nohat, Not Accessible, Notheruser, Ntsimp, NuclearWarfare, Numerao, Nv8200p, OZOO, Oli Filth, OliG312,Oliverdl, Oliverlyc, Orbus, Orthogonal, P. 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Freitas, Pagen HD, Palica, Parcly Taxel, ParticleMan, Passargea, Patrick, Patstuart, Paul from Michigan, PaulGarner, Pedant17, Peepa30, Pelister,Persian Poet Gal, Peter L, Phil Boswell, Philc 0780, Pie lover123, Pigsonthewing, Pizza Puzzle, Porges, Possum, Postglock, Princess Lirin, Prodego, Purplefeltangel, QuartierLatin1968,Quuxplusone, RTC, RadicalBender, Radiojon, Radishes, RainbowOfLight, RedHillian, Redf0x, Reinyday, Reisio, RenniePet, Rich Farmbrough, Richhoncho, Robertgreer, Ross Burgess,RucasHost, RyJones, SHYDOG, Sam Hocevar, SameerKhan, Samuel, Samwaltz, Sanmartin, Sarang, Satori Son, Saxifrage, Sceptre, SchfiftyThree, Scientus, Scriber, Sct72, Scwlong, Secfan,SerduchkaFan, Seth Ilys, Shingrila, Shirulashem, ShutterBugTrekker, Sionus, Sir Lewk, Skeetch, SkyWalker, Skysmith, Sl, Slady, Slashme, Sloman, Smeira, Snowdog, Someguy1221, Sonjaaa,Spacez320, Sparafucil, SpiralTurtle, StaticGull, Steven X, StuartH, Sundar sando, Supercooljs2, Swagger28, Swati Mridu, Swimm1, THATSLUTPANDA, TJRC, TShilo12, Ta bu shi da yu,Tamfang, Tarquin, Tbhotch, Tcwd, Template namespace initialisation script, The Article Creator, The Bryce, The Man in Question, TheChampionMan1234, TheKMan, Thelmadatter,Thetorpedodog, Thingg, Thomas.W, Tiddly Tom, TimBentley, Timshuwy, Timwi, TomeHale, Torc2, Trevor MacInnis, Tropylium, Tslocum, Tulkolahten, Twsx, Unrulyevil, Uogl, Urhixidur,Us441, V85, Vanisaac, Vanished user 9i39j3, Velho, Verdlanco, Versageek, Waggers, Wanderer099, Wapcaplet, Wayward, Wenli, Wiki alf, Wikid77, William Avery, Wimt, Wjmummert,Wl219, Work permit, Wshun, Wytukaze, Xiaphias, Yardcock, Yekrats, Yippidydee2, Youandme, ZacBowling, Zacgoo22, Zahid Abdassabur, Zalgt1, Zbxgscqf, Zigger, Ziusudra, , ,418 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Latin alphabet Cc.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Latin_alphabet_Cc.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Eirik1231File:Cursive.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cursive.svg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Contributors: AndrewBuckFile:C cursiva.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:C_cursiva.gif License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: User:Alma CebrianFile:Copyright.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Copyright.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: / see belowFile:Phoenician gimel.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Phoenician_gimel.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Ch1902File:Jiim-individua.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jiim-individua.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Korrigan, Shibo77, Wickey-nlFile:Gimel Hebrew.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Gimel_Hebrew.svg License: unknown Contributors: Original uploader was Ktims at en.wikipediaFile:Gamma uc lc.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Gamma_uc_lc.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Dcoetzee, F l a n k e rFile:EtruscanC-01.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:EtruscanC-01.svg License: unknown Contributors: File:EtruscanT-01.png: Nd derivative work: Martin Kozk(talk)File:Old Latin G.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Old_Latin_G.svg License: unknown Contributors: Loki 66File:Early Etruscan C.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Early_Etruscan_C.gif License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was Primetime at en.wikipediaFile:Classical Etruscan C.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Classical_Etruscan_C.gif License: Public Domain Contributors: -Image:ICS_Charlie.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:ICS_Charlie.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Denelson83, EclecticArkie, Indolences, JoeDeRoseImage:Semaphore_Charlie.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Semaphore_Charlie.svg License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Contributors:Andy Dingley, Denelson83Image:Braille_C3.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Braille_C3.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:3247's Image Wizard/Scripts/braille.plImage:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikisource-logo.svg License: logo Contributors: ChrisiPK, Guillom, INeverCry, Jarekt, Leyo,MichaelMaggs, NielsF, Rei-artur, Rocket000, Steinsplitterfile:Commons-logo.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Commons-logo.svg License: logo Contributors: Anomiefile:Wiktionary-logo-en.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wiktionary-logo-en.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Vectorized by , based on original logo tossedtogether by Brion Vibber

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

CHistory Later useUse in orthographiesEnglishOther languagesChOther digraphs and trigraphs

Other usageRelated letters and other similar charactersComputing codesOther representationsReferencesExternal links

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