C (letter): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:00, 23 July 2024

Use in English

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Use in English
Alphabetical word list
Retroalphabetical list
Common misspellings

Though very common in English, c has (as also in French, Portuguese, Catalan and most varieties of Spanish) no sound of its own, instead sounding either like a k (= like a q), or like an s; or, thirdly, preceding h to give the ch sound, which sounds like tsh (though there are other words in which ch simply sounds like sh, and yet others where it sounds like k).

The k sound is in the back of the throat, as in kíng, or as q in quêen: cát; the s sound is a hiss, as in that word, híss (where it is, typically, doubled) and in sô: cïrcle (in which the second c has the k sound: *sërkl; the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English spellings). The ch sound can be heard twice in chürch and at the beginning of choôse (*tshûz), but not at all in machìne (*məshêen).

The accents show stress and pronunciation (see English spellings): A: sát, mâde, pàrk, cāst (cást/càst), åll, ãir; E: ére, êar, vèin, fërn; I: sít, mîne, skì, bïrd; O: sóng, môde, lòve, wörd, ŏr; OO: moôn, foòt; U: sún, mûse, fùll, pürr; W: neŵ, ẁant; Y: gým, mŷ, keỳ, mÿrrh.

The letter c is actually more common than k - and much more common than q - for the throaty sound. It occurs before back vowels a, o and u: cát, còme, còunt, cûre, côast, and liquid consonants l and r: clíck, crúst, clàss. In crícket, thícket, rácket, wícker, bícker, lócker, dócker, crácker, brácken, bráckish, lácking, the k is needed to show the throaty sound of the second c: without the k, the c would sound like an s because of the following e or i. Also, -ck is more common at the end of words as in déck and clóck. But after í, c is quite common finally: plástic, pánic, eléctric, frenétic, mûsic. Compare síc thus with síck ill. Also: mâniác, lîlac, ålmanác, blóc (no words do not end in -ec or -uc).

The hissing s sound occurs before front vowel letters i, e and y: cïrcle, céntre, cŷcle, cínema, nîce, Lâcy, Trâcy, pâcy, and also initially in the combinations caê- and coê-: Caêsar, caêcum, Caêlum, coênobitic, coêlacanth (all sêe-). For the hissing sound to remain before a back vowel, a cedilla is used in Bàrça (cf. Barcelôna, where no cedilla is needed), curaçào, soûpçon, façàde (this word is now often written without the cedilla, especially in AmE) and Provençàl (*Próvón-sàl). The famous rule "i before e except after c" applies only to the ê sound (and not to èi as in vèin): cêiling, decêit, recêive, recêipt (-êet). And then, not only after c, as it happens: sêize, wêir, wêird, Nêil, Kêith and Shêila. Compare vèil, vèin, fèint pretend (= fâint swoon), dèign condescend (= Dâne Denmark), rèign queen (= râin wet), and also théir they (= thére here).

Quite often, especially at the beginning of a word, sc is used for the hissing sound before front vowels: scêne, scîence, scént, scíssors, scîon, scintílla, scímitar, scŷthe, sciática (*sŷáttica); but scéptic is the British spelling of AmE sképtic (cf. séptic wound).

In the suffix -ésce: acquiésce, effervésce, and pronounced z in créscent (*crézzənt).

An exceptional c is found in encephalîtis, pronounced k before e (enkéf-); otherwise c is always a hiss before e, i and y.

There are silent cs in indîct, Tûcson and Connécticut. ch most typically sounds like t plus sh – not usually like sh alone. French, German and Portuguese do not have this sound, although German writes it in foreign words as ‘tsch’. Spanish does have it, whence mácho (*mátcho: it is sometimes mispronounced ‘macko’, as if Italian). ch is common in English, which has taken French words like chàrm ('charme' in French) and modified the sound of the French ch, which has the English sh sound: chéck, choôse, chânge, Ríchard and also côach, bêach, chêek, chéss, chêer, cheŵ, escheŵ (which has a rare, separately sounded, s before it). Inside a word, there is often a superfluous t before ch: ítch, dítch, cátch, mátch, bùtcher - but never after r: tŏrch, lürch, àrch, except in names: Pàrtch person = pàrch tongue. And Tchaîkovsky has the T initially.

This sound is spelt Cz, however, in Czéch Republic (= chéck determine = BrE chéque cash) and Czechoslovákia.

In some words more recently taken from French, ch sounds exactly like sh in shê: machìne, nìche, pastìche, BrE moustàche, AmE moústáche, párachute, créche, Chicàgo and nónchalant, in which AmE French-style silences the t: *nonshalàn.

In other words, mostly from Greek, ch is pronounced k: chord, chémist, psŷchê, dichótomy, schême, àrchive, synécdochê, schoôner, and Mîchael, which rhymes with cŷcle. In various Celtic words ch can sound like the Arabic kh, e.g. lóch, Dócherty - but many non-Celts simply make the k sound here. And in the variant spelling Dóherty, the h sounds like itself alone - or like kh or k. The same sound occurs in initial position in the Hebrew/Yiddish word chùtzpah, where many English-speakers pronounce it as h.

Åuchinleck in Scotland is pronounced *Áffleck.

In yacht, ch is silent: *yót.

ci before a vowel can have the sh sound: atrôcious (*atrôshəss), précious (*préshəss), magícian (*məjíshən), Confûcius (*Kənfyoôshəss) - but never the zh sound, which is restricted to si: confûsion (*cənfyûzhən).

In the musical term acciacatûra, from Italian, cci is pronounced with the ch sound.

Double c has the k sound before back vowels (but for this, ck is far more common medially and finally): accŏrd, tobácco, accommodâtion, áccolâde, sóccer.

cc has the x sound before i and e: áccent, accépt, áccident, fláccid, áccess, succêed, succéss, succínct, váccine, Óccitan. Åltrincham is pronounced as if spelt *Åltringham.

The second c in concërto/concérto is most often pronounced as sh, though it may also have the original Italian pronunciation, ch.

c begins consonant clusters: accépt (x sound, while accŏrd has no cluster, only the k sound), acknówledge, táckle, clûe, ácmê, ácnê, acquîre, cróss, áct.

Mc- and Mac-, etc.

In names beginning Mc- and Mac- before another c, k or g, the c is silent, while the sometimes invisible a is in most cases pronounced with the schwa sound. It is as if the c itself were being pronounced schwa: McGóugh (*MəGóff), McCúrry, McCŏrmack, McKénzie = Mackénzie. This is sometimes the case before W: McWhínney *MəWhínney.

Either Mác or Mc can be stressed in a smaller number of names: MácIlvoy, McEnroe. In the latter the stressed syllable is an invisible á: *Máckənrô.

The c is always hard, even when not followed by a capital or k: McIntosh = MácIntosh = Máckintosh. When capitalising, the c is best kept small: McINTOSH.

nc has the ng sound of the n in úncle and accidentally in páncake. In Åltrincham, the c itself is not pronounced, merely modifying the n, as if the spelling were *Åltringham.

Final c is rare, except for the suffix -ic: plástic, jurássic, elástic, chrónic (k-) mánic; and Éric, chìc (sh-), Cádillac, Póntiac, Potômac and in abbreviations: tálc, mác. But *téc is téch.

To keep the c hard and prevent it becoming a hiss, a k is added to -ic before -ing and -ed: frólicking, pánicking, políticking, tráfficked.

But ck is much more common in monosyllables: síck, thíck, píck, wíck, críck, báck, déck, sóck, lúck, and as in jácket, crícket, píckle, níckel, pécker, lúcky.

After two vowel letters, k alone is always used: toòk, spoôk, sêek, roòk, wêek, lêak liquid = lêek vegetable, wêek, spêak, breâk, shrìêk.

Use in Turkish

In Turkish, c is pronounced like an English j (IPA [dʒ]), and ç like an English ch ([tʃ]).

Scientific uses

C is the symbol for the chemical element carbon.
c: speed of light in vacuum

Computer character encoding

In Unicode the capital C is codepoint U+0043 and the lowercase c is U+0063.

The ASCII code for capital C is 67 and for lowercase c is 99; or in binary 01000011 and 01100011, respectively.

The EBCDIC code for capital C is 195 for lowercase c is 131.

The numeric character references in HTML and XML are "C" and "c" for upper and lower case respectively.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{subpages}}
+{{subpages}}{{TOC|right}}
 ''For other uses, see [[C|the C disambiguation page]].''
-'''C''' is the third [[Letter (alphabet)|letter]] of the [[English alphabet]], as it is in the [[Latin alphabet]], where it originally appeared. In [[English language|English]] its name is pronounced like ''see'' and ''sea'', and is occasionally spelt out as ''cee''.
+'''C, c''' is a letter of the [[Latin alphabet]]. It is the third letter of most variants, being placed after [[B (letter)|B]] and before [[D (letter)|D]], as is the case for instance in the [[English alphabet]]. Its English name is pronounced [ˈsiː], like ''see'' and ''sea'', and is occasionally spelt out as ''cee''.
 C is also the [[Roman numerals|Roman numeral]] representing the number [[100]].
-==History==
+==Use in English==
+{{:English_spellings/Catalogs/Masterlist}}
+Though very common in English, '''c''' has (as also in French, Portuguese, Catalan and most varieties of Spanish) no sound of its own, instead sounding either like a '''k''' (= like a '''q'''),  or like an '''s'''; or, thirdly, preceding '''h''' to give the '''ch''' sound, which sounds like '''tsh''' (though there are other words in which '''ch''' simply sounds like '''sh''', and yet others where it sounds like '''k''').
-''C'' comes from the same letter as ''[[G (letter)|G]]''. The [[Semites]] named it [[Gimel (letter)|gimel]], their word for a throwing stick. The sign is possibly adapted from an [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyph]] for a boomerang. Some scholars claim that the Semitic gimel (ג) pictured  a camel, but most assume it was probably ''gaml'' (a throwing stick or [[boomerang]]).
+The '''k''' sound is in the back of the throat, as in '''kíng''', or as '''q''' in '''quêen''': '''cát''';  the '''s''' sound is a hiss, as in that word, '''híss''' (where it is, typically, doubled) and in '''sô''': '''cïrcle''' (in which the second '''c''' has the '''k''' sound: *sërkl; the accents show stress and pronunciation: see [[English spellings]]).  The '''ch''' sound can be heard twice in '''chürch''' and at the beginning of '''choôse''' (*tshûz), but not at all in '''machìne''' (*məshêen).
+{{:English spellings/Accents}}
-In the [[Etruscan language]], [[plosive consonant]]s had no contrastive [[phonation|voicing]], so the [[Greek language|Greek]] <font face="Times New Roman">[[Gamma (Greek letter)|Γ]]</font> ([[Gamma (Greek letter)|gamma]]) was adopted into the [[Etruscan alphabet]] to represent the {{IPA|/k/}} phoneme. Already in the [[Western Greek alphabet]], gamma first took a [[Image:Early_Etruscan_C.png|15px]] form in Early Etruscan, then [[Image:Classical_Etruscan_C.png|15px]] in Classical Etruscan. Early Latin used ''C'' for both {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/g/}}, but during the 3rd century BC, a modified character<!--  or [[Image:Early Latin G.JPG]] --> was introduced for {{IPA|/g/}}, and ''C'' itself retained for {{IPA|/k/}}. Hence, in the classical period and after, ''G'' was treated as the [[phonetic]] representative of "gamma", and ''C'' as the equivalent of "kappa", in the transliteration of Greek words into Roman spelling, as in "''KA∆MOΣ, KYPOΣ, ΦΩKIΣ,''" in Roman letters "CADMVS, CYRVS, PHOCIS". It is also possible but uncertain that ''C'' represented only {{IPA|/g/}} at a very early time, while ''[[K]]'' might have been used for {{IPA|/k/}}.
+The letter '''c''' is actually more common than '''k''' - and much more common than '''q''' - for the throaty sound.  It occurs before back vowels '''a''', '''o''' and '''u''': '''cát, còme, còunt, cûre, côast''', and liquid consonants '''l''' and '''r''': '''clíck, crúst, clàss'''.  In '''crícket, thícket, rácket, wícker, bícker, lócker, dócker, crácker, brácken, bráckish, lácking''', the '''k''' is needed to show the throaty sound of the second '''c''': without the '''k''', the '''c''' would sound like an '''s''' because of the following '''e''' or '''i'''.  Also, -'''ck''' is more common at the end of words as in '''déck''' and '''clóck'''.  But after '''í''', '''c''' is quite common finally: '''plástic, pánic, eléctric, frenétic, mûsic'''.  Compare '''síc''' ''thus'' with '''síck''' ''ill''.  Also: '''mâniác, lîlac, ålmanác, blóc''' (no words do not end in -ec or -uc).
-(As it happens, the [[Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic]] letter [[Es (Cyrillic)|Es]], an unvoiced labiodental sibilant, ''s'' in ''sun'',
+The hissing '''s''' sound occurs before front vowel letters '''i, e''' and '''y''': '''cïrcle, céntre, cŷcle, cínema, nîce, Lâcy, Trâcy, pâcy''', and also initially in the combinations '''caê'''- and '''coê'''-: '''Caêsar''', '''caêcum''', '''Caêlum''', '''coênobitic''', '''coêlacanth''' (all sêe-). For the hissing sound to remain before a back vowel, a cedilla is used in '''Bàrça''' (cf. '''Barcelôna''', where no cedilla is needed), '''curaçào, soûpçon, façàde''' (this word is now often written without the cedilla, especially in AmE) and '''Provençàl''' (*Próvón-sàl).
-has the same appearance as ''c'', though it derives from one form of the Greek letter [[sigma (letter)|sigma]], known as the "lunate sigma" from its resemblance to a crescent moon.)
+The famous rule "'''i''' before '''e''' except after '''c'''" applies only to the '''ê''' sound (and not to '''èi''' as in '''vèin'''): '''cêiling, decêit, recêive, recêipt''' (-êet). And then, not only after '''c''', as it happens: '''sêize, wêir, wêird, Nêil, Kêith''' and '''Shêila'''.  Compare '''vèil, vèin, fèint''' ''pretend'' (= '''fâint''' ''swoon''), '''dèign''' ''condescend'' (= '''Dâne''' ''Denmark''), '''rèign'''  ''queen'' (= '''râin''' ''wet''), and also '''théir''' ''they'' (= '''thére''' ''here'').
-===Later use===
+Quite often, especially at the beginning of a word, '''sc''' is used for the hissing sound before front vowels: '''scêne,  scîence, scént, scíssors, scîon,  scintílla, scímitar, scŷthe, sciática''' (*sŷáttica); but '''scéptic''' is the British spelling of AmE '''sképtic''' (cf. '''séptic''' ''wound'').
-When the Roman alphabet was introduced into Britain, ''C'' represented only {{IPA|/k/}} and this value of the letter has been retained in loanwords to all the [[insular Celtic languages]]: in [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Irish language|Irish]], [[Scottish Gaelic language|Gaelic]], ''C'', ''c'', is still only {{IPA|/k/}}. The [[Old English]] or "[[Anglo-Saxon language|Anglo-Saxon]]" writing was learned from the Celts, apparently of Ireland; hence its ''c'' also originally represented {{IPA|/k/}}: the words ''kin, break, broken, thick, seek,'' were in Old English written ''cyn, brecan, brocen, Þicc, séoc''. But during the course of the Old English period, {{IPA|/k/}} before front vowels ({{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/i/}}) was [[palatalization|palatalized]], having, by the 10th century, advanced nearly or quite to the sound of {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, though still written ''c'', as in ''cir(i)ce, wrecc(e)a''. On the continent, meanwhile, a similar phonetic change had also been going on, for example, in [[Italian language|Italian]].
-Original Latin {{IPA|/k/}} before front vowels had palatalized in Italy to the sound of {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, and in France to that of {{IPA|/ts/}}. Yet for these new sounds the old character ''c'' was still retained before ''e'' and ''i,'' and the letter thus represented two distinct values. Moreover the Latin phoneme {{IPA|/kʷ/}} (represented by QV, or ''qu'') de-labialized to {{IPA|/k/}}, meaning that the various Romance languages had {{IPA|/k/}} before front vowels.  In addition, [[Northern French]] used the Greek letter ''k'', so that the sound {{IPA|/k/}} could be represented by either ''k'' or ''c,'' the latter of which could represent either {{IPA|/k/}} or {{IPA|/ts/}}. These French inconsistencies as to ''c'' and ''k'' were, after the [[Norman Conquest]], applied to the writing of English, which caused a considerable re-spelling of the Old English words. Thus while Old English ''candel, clif, corn, crop, cú,'' remained unchanged, ''Cent, cæ´[[Image:Insular_G.png]] (cé´[[Image:Insular_G.png]]), cyng, brece, séoce,'' were now (without any change of sound) spelt ''Kent, ke<font face="Microsoft Sans Serif">ȝ</font>, kyng, breke, seoke;'' even ''cniht'' was subsequently spelt ''kniht, knight,'' and ''Þic, Þicc,'' became ''thik, thikk, thick''. The Old English cw- was also at length (very unnecessarily) displaced by the French ''qw'', ''qu'' so that the Old English ''cwén, cwic,'' became [[Middle English]] ''qwen, quen, qwik, quik,'' now ''queen, quick''. The sound {{IPA|/tʃ/}} to which Old English palatalized ''c'' had advanced also occurred in French, chiefly (in Central French) from Latin ''c'' before ''a''. In French it was represented by ''ch'', as in ''champ, cher'', Latin ''camp-um, caōr-um'', and this spelling was now introduced into English: the Hatton Gospels, written about 1160, have in Matt. i-iii, ''child, chyld, riche, mychel,'' for the ''cild, rice, mycel,'' of the Old English version whence they were copied. In these cases, the Old English ''c'' gave place to ''k, qu, ch;'' but, on the other hand, ''c'' in its new value of {{IPA|/ts/}} came in largely in French words like ''processiun, emperice, grace,'' and was also substituted for ''ts'' in a few Old English words, such as ''miltse, bletsien,'' in early Middle English ''milce, blecien''. By the end of the 13th century both in France and England, this sound {{IPA|/ts/}} de-affricated to {{IPA|/s/}}; and from that date ''c'' before front vowels has been, phonetically, a duplicate or subsidiary letter to ''s''; used either for [[etymology|etymological]] reasons, as in ''lance, cent,'' or (in defiance of etymology) to avoid the ambiguity due to the "etymological" use of s for {{IPA|/z/}}, as in ''ace, mice, once, pence, defence''.
+In the suffix -'''ésce''': '''acquiésce, effervésce''', and pronounced '''z''' in '''créscent''' (*crézzənt).
-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.
+An exceptional '''c''' is found in '''encephalîtis''', pronounced '''k''' before '''e''' (enkéf-); otherwise '''c''' is always a hiss before '''e''', '''i''' and '''y'''.
-===Today===
+There are silent '''c'''s in '''indî'''c'''t, Tû'''c'''son''' and '''Conné'''c'''ticut'''.
-Hence, today the [[Romance languages]] and [[English language|English]] have a common feature inherited from [[Vulgar Latin]], where ''c'' takes on either a "hard" or "soft" value depending on the following vowel. In English and [[French language|French]], ''c'' takes the "hard" value {{IPA|/k/}} finally and before ''a, o, and u'', and the "soft" value {{IPA|/s/}} before ''æ, e, i, œ'' or ''y''.  However, as one would expect with English spelling, there are a couple of exceptions: "[[soccer]]" and "[[Celt]]" are words that have a 'k' sound in the "wrong" place.
+'''ch''' most typically sounds like '''t''' plus '''sh''' – not usually like '''sh''' alone.  French, German and Portuguese do not have this sound, although German writes it in foreign words as ‘tsch’.  Spanish does have it, whence '''mácho''' (*mátcho: it is sometimes mispronounced ‘macko’, as if Italian).  '''ch''' is common in English, which has taken French words like '''chàrm''' ('charme' in French) and modified the sound of the French '''ch''', which has the English '''sh''' sound: '''chéck, choôse, chânge, Ríchard''' and also '''côach, bêach, chêek, chéss, chêer, cheŵ, escheŵ''' (which has a rare, separately sounded, '''s''' before it).  Inside a word, there is often a superfluous '''t''' before '''ch''': '''ítch, dítch, cátch, mátch, bùtcher''' - but never after '''r''': '''tŏrch, lürch, àrch''', except in names: '''Pàrtch''' ''person'' = '''pàrch''' ''tongue''. And '''Tchaîkovsky''' has the '''T''' initially.
-[[Romance languages]] obey similar rules, but the soft value is different in several languages, such as [s] in general, but a [[voiceless dental fricative]] {{IPA|/θ/}} in Castilian [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and {{IPA|/ʧ/}} in [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]] and [[Friulian language|Friulian]]. [[French language|French]], [[Occitan language|Occitan]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Aragonese language|Aragonese]] and [[Francoprovençal language|Francoprovençal]] have ''[[ç]]'', [["c cedilla"]], to make the ''c'' soft (sounding [s]) before ''a'', ''o'', and ''u''. [[Frioulian language|Friulian]] uses ''ç'' sounding [tʃ] before ''a'', ''o'' and ''u''.
+This sound is spelt '''Cz''', however, in '''Czéch''' ''Republic'' (= '''chéck''' ''determine'' = BrE '''chéque''' ''cash'') and '''Czechoslovákia'''.
-Other languages use ''c'' with different values, such as {{IPA|/k/}} regardless of position in [[Irish language|Irish]] and [[Welsh language|Welsh]]; {{IPA|/θ/}} in [[Fijian language|Fijian]]; {{IPA|/ʤ/}} in [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Tatar language|Tatar]], and [[Azeri language|Azeri]]; {{IPA|/ʧ/}} in [[Bahasa Indonesia|Indonesian]], [[Malay language|Malay]], and a number of African languages such as [[Hausa language|Hausa]], [[Fula language|Fula]], and [[Manding languages|Manding]]; {{IPA|/ʦ/}} in all [[Slavic languages]] that use the Latin alphabet, as well as [[Albanian language|Albanian]], [[Esperanto]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Ido]], [[Interlingua]], [[Latvian language|Latvian]], and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]; and {{IPA|/tsʰ/}} in [[Pinyin|Romanized]] [[Chinese language|Chinese]]. It is also used as a transliteration of the Cyrillic "Ц" in the Latinic forms of [[Serbian alphabet|Serbian]] and [[Romanisation of Macedonian|Macedonian]].
+In some words more recently taken from French, '''ch''' sounds exactly like '''sh''' in '''shê''': '''machìne, nìche, pastìche, '''BrE''' moustàche, '''AmE''' moústáche, párachute, créche, Chicàgo''' and '''nónchalant''', in which AmE French-style silences the '''t''': *nonshalàn.
-There are several common digraphs with ''c'', the most common being ''ch'', which in some languages such as [[German language|German]] is far more common than ''c'' alone. In English, ''ch'' most commonly takes the value {{IPA|/ʧ/}}, but can take the value {{IPA|/k/}} or {{IPA|/ʃ/}}; some dialects of English also have {{IPA|/x/}} in words like ''loch'' where other speakers pronounce the final sound as {{IPA|/k/}}. ''CH'' takes various values in other languages, such as {{IPA|/ç/}}, {{IPA|/k/}}, or {{IPA|/x/}} in German, {{IPA|/ʃ/}} in [[French language|French]], {{IPA|/k/}} in Interlingua and Italian, {{IPA|/ʈʂʰ/}} in [[Mandarin Chinese]], and so forth. ''CK'', with the value {{IPA|/k/}}, is often used after short vowels in [[Germanic languages]] such as English, German and [[Swedish language|Swedish]] (but some other Germanic languages use ''kk'' instead, such as [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]). The digraph ''cz'' is found in Polish and ''cs'' in Hungarian, both representing {{IPA|/ʧ/}}.  In Old English, Italian, and a few languages related to Italian, ''sc'' represents {{IPA|/ʃ/}} (however in Italian and related languages this only happens before ''e'' or ''i'', otherwise it represents {{IPA|/sk/}}).
+In other words, mostly from Greek, '''ch''' is pronounced '''k''': '''chord, chémist, psŷchê, dichótomy, schême, àrchive, synécdochê, schoôner''', and '''Mîchael''', which rhymes with '''cŷcle'''.
+In various Celtic words '''ch''' can sound like the Arabic '''kh''', e.g. '''lóch, Dócherty''' - but many non-Celts simply make the '''k''' sound here.  And in the variant spelling '''Dóherty''', the '''h''' sounds like itself alone - or like '''kh''' or '''k'''. The same sound occurs in initial position in the Hebrew/Yiddish word '''chùtzpah''', where many English-speakers pronounce it as '''h'''.
-As a [[phonetic]] symbol, lowercase ''c'' is the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] (IPA) and [[X-SAMPA]] symbol for the [[voiceless palatal plosive]], and capital ''C'' is the [[X-SAMPA]] symbol for the [[voiceless palatal fricative]].
+'''Åuchinleck''' in Scotland is pronounced *Áffleck.
-==Use in English==
+In yacht, '''ch''' is silent: *yót.
-Though very common in English, '''c''' has (as in French, Portuguese, Catalan and many varieties of Spanish) no sound of its own.  It is either in the back of the throat, exactly like '''k''' ('''kíng''') and '''q''' ('''quêen''') or it is a hiss, like the most common sound of '''s''' ('''sô'''), often, to distinguish from the buzzing z sound of '''s''', '''ss''' as in '''híss'''.  (The accents show stress and pronunciation: see [[English phonemes]].)
-'''c''' is actually more common than '''k''' - and much more than '''q''' - for the throaty sound.  It occurs before back vowels '''a''', '''o''' and '''u''': '''cát, còme, còunt, cûre, côast''', and liquid consonants '''l''' and '''r''': '''clíck, crúst, clàss'''.  In '''crícket, thícket, rácket, wícker, bícker, lócker, dócker, crácker, brácken, bráckish, lácking''', the '''k''' is needed to show the throaty sound of the second '''c''': without the '''k''', the '''c''' would sound like an 's' because of the following '''e''' or '''i'''.  Also, -'''ck''' is more common at the end of words as in '''déck''' and '''clóck'''.  But after '''í''', '''c''' is quite common finally: '''plástic, pánic, eléctric, frenétic, mûsic'''.  Compare '''síc''' ''thus'' with '''síck''' ''ill''.  Also: '''mâniác, lîlac, ålmanác, blóc'''.  By contrast, words do not end -ec or -uc.
+'''ci''' before a vowel can have the '''sh''' sound: '''atrôcious''' (*atrôshəss), '''précious''' (*préshəss), '''magícian''' (*məjíshən), '''Confûcius''' (*Kənfyoôshəss) - but never the '''zh''' sound, which is restricted to '''si''': '''confûsion''' (*cənfyûzhən).
-The hissing s sound occurs before front vowels '''i, e''' and '''y''': '''cïrcle, céntre, cŷcle, cínema, nîce, Lâcy, Trâcy, pâcy'''.  For the hissing sound to remain before a back vowel, a cedilla is used in '''curaçào, soûpçon, façàde''' and '''Provençàl''' (*Provón-sàl).
+In the musical term '''acciacatûra''', from Italian, '''cci''' is pronounced with the '''ch''' sound.
-The famous rule ''''i''' before '''e''' except after '''c'''' applies only to the '''ê''' sound (and not to '''èi''' as in '''vèin'''): '''cêiling, decêit, recêive, recêipt''' (-êet).—And then, not only after '''c''', as it happens: '''sêize, wêir, wêird, Nêil, Kêith''' and '''Shêila'''.  Compare '''vèil, vèin, fèint''' ''pretend'' (= '''fâint''' ''swoon''), '''dèign''' ''condescend'' (= '''Dâne''' ''Denmark''), '''rèign'''  ''queen'' (= '''râin''' ''wet''), and also '''théir''' ''they'' (= '''thére''' ''here'').
+Double '''c''' has the '''k''' sound before back vowels (but for this, '''ck''' is far more common medially and finally): '''accŏrd, tobácco, accommodâtion, áccolâde, sóccer'''.
-Quite often, especially at the beginning of a word, '''sc''' is used for the hissing sound before front vowels: '''scêne, scéptic, scîence, scént, scíssors, scîon,  scintílla, scímitar, scythe, sciática''' (*sŷática).
+'''cc''' has the '''x''' sound before '''i''' and '''e''': '''áccent, accépt, áccident, fláccid, áccess, succêed, succéss, succínct, váccine, Óccitan'''.
+'''Åltrincham''' is pronounced as if spelt *Åltringham.
-In the suffix -'''ésce''': '''acquiésce, effervésce''', and pronounced z in '''créscent''' (*crézzənt).
+The second '''c''' in '''concërto'''/'''concérto''' is most often pronounced as '''sh''', though it may also have the original Italian pronunciation, '''ch'''.
-An exceptional '''c''' is found in '''encephalîtis''', pronounced k before '''e''' (enkéf-); otherwise '''c''' is always a hiss before '''e''', '''i''' and '''y'''.
+'''c''' begins consonant clusters: '''accépt''' (x sound, while '''accŏrd''' has no cluster, only the k sound), '''acknówledge, táckle, clûe, ácmê, ácnê, acquîre, cróss, áct'''.
-'''indîct, Tûcson''' and '''Connécticut''' all have a silent '''c'''.
+==='''Mc'''- and '''Mac'''-, etc.===
+In names beginning '''Mc'''- and '''Mac'''- before another '''c''', '''k''' or '''g''', the '''c''' is silent, while the sometimes invisible '''a''' is in most cases pronounced with the schwa sound.  It is as if the '''c''' itself were being pronounced schwa: '''McGóugh''' (*MəGóff), '''McCúrry, McCŏrmack, McKénzie''' = '''Mackénzie'''. This is sometimes the case before '''W''': '''McWhínney''' *MəWhínney.
-'''ch''' most typically sounds like t plus sh – not like sh alone.  French, German and Portuguese do not have this sound, although the Germans write it in foreign words as ‘tsch’.  Spanish does have it, whence '''mácho''' (*mátcho: it is sometimes mispronounced ‘macko’, as if Italian).  '''ch''' is common in English, which has taken French words like '''chàrm''' ('charme' in French) and modified the sound of the French '''ch''', which has the English sh sound: '''chéck, choôse, chânge, Ríchard''' and also '''côach, bêach, chêek, chéss, chêer, cheŵ, escheŵ''' (which has a rare, separately sounded, '''s''' before it).  Inside a word, there is often a superfluous '''t''' before '''ch''': '''ítch, dítch, cátch, mátch, bùtcher''' - but never after '''r''': '''tŏrch, lürch, àrch''', except in names: '''Pàrtch''' ''person'' = '''pàrch''' ''tongue''. And '''Tchaîkovsky''' has the '''T''' initially.
+Either '''Mác''' or '''Mc''' can be stressed in a smaller number of names: '''MácIlvoy, McEnroe'''.  In the latter the stressed syllable is an invisible '''á''': *Máckənrô.
-Uniquely, this sound is spelt '''Cz''', however, in '''Czéch''' ''Republic'', ''-oslovakia'' (= '''chéck''' ''determine'' = BrE '''chéque''' ''cash'').
+The '''c''' is always hard, even when not followed by a capital or '''k''': '''McIntosh''' = '''MácIntosh''' = '''Máckintosh'''.
+When capitalising, the '''c''' is best kept small: '''McINTOSH'''.
-In some words more recently taken from French, '''ch'' sounds exactly like '''sh''' in '''shê''': '''machìne, nìche, pastìche, BrE moustàche, AmE moústáche, párachute, créche, Chicàgo''' and '''nónchalant''', in which AmE French-style silences the '''t''': *nonshalàn.
+'''nc''' has the '''ng''' sound of the '''n''' in '''úncle''' and accidentally in '''páncake'''. In '''Åltrincham''', the '''c''' itself is not pronounced, merely modifying the '''n''', as if the spelling were *Åltringham.
-In other words, mostly from Greek, '''ch''' is '''k''': '''chord, chémist, psŷchê, dichótomy, schême, àrchive, synécdochê, schoôner'''.
+Final '''c''' is rare, except for the suffix -'''ic''': '''plástic, jurássic, elástic, chrónic''' (k-) '''mánic'''; and '''Éric, chìc''' (sh-), '''Cádillac, Póntiac, Potômac''' and in abbreviations: '''tálc, mác'''.  But *téc is '''téch'''.
-In two Celtic words '''ch''' can sound like the Arabic kh: '''lóch, Dócherty''' - but many people simply make the k sound here.  And in the variant spelling Dóherty, the '''h''' sounds like itself alone - or kh or k.
+To keep the '''c''' hard and prevent it becoming a hiss, a '''k''' is added to -'''ic''' before -'''ing''' and -'''ed''': '''frólicking, pánicking, políticking, tráfficked'''.
-In yacht, '''ch''' is silent: *yót.
+But '''ck''' is much more common in monosyllables: '''síck, thíck, píck, wíck, críck, báck, déck, sóck, lúck, and as in jácket, crícket, píckle, níckel, pécker, lúcky'''.
-'''ci''' before a vowel can have the sh sound: '''atrôcious''' (*atrôshəss), '''précious''' (*préshəss), '''magícian''' (*məjishən), '''Confûcius''' (*Kənfyoôshəss) - but never the zh sound, which is instead '''si''': '''confûsion''' (*cənfyûzhən).
+After two vowel letters, '''k''' alone is always used: '''toòk, spoôk, sêek, roòk, wêek, lêak''' ''liquid'' = '''lêek''' ''vegetable'', '''wêek, spêak, breâk, shrìêk'''.
-Double '''c''' has the k sound before back vowels (but for this, '''ck''' is far more common medially and finally): '''accŏrd, tobácco, accommodâtion, áccolâde, sóccer'''.
+==Use in Turkish==
+In [[Turkish language|Turkish]], ''c'' is pronounced like an English ''j'' (IPA [dʒ]), and ''ç'' like an English ''ch'' ([tʃ]).
-And the '''x''' sound before '''i''' and '''e''': '''áccent, accépt, áccident, fláccid, áccess, succêed, succéss, váccine'''.
+==Scientific uses==
-'''c''' begins consonant clusters: '''accépt''' (x sound, while '''accŏrd''' has no cluster, only the k sound), '''acknówledge, táckle, clûe, ácmê, acquîre, cróss, áct'''.
+*C is the symbol for the chemical element [[carbon]].
+*''c'': speed of light in vacuum
-In names beginning '''Mc'''- and '''Mac'''- before another '''c''', '''k''' or '''g''', the '''c''' is silent, while the sometimes invisible '''a''' is in most cases pronounced with the schwa sound.  It is as if the '''c''' itself were being pronounced schwa: '''McGóugh''' (*MəGóff), '''McCúrry, McCŏrmack, McKénzie''' = '''Mackénzie'''.
-Either '''Mác''' or '''Mc''' can be stressed in a smaller number of names: '''MácIlvoy, McEnroe'''.  In the latter the stressed syllable is an invisible a.
-The '''c''' is always hard, even when not followed by a capital or '''k''': '''McIntosh''' = '''MácIntosh''' = '''Máckintosh'''.
-When capitalising, the '''c''' prefers to remain small: '''McINTOSH'''.
-'''nc''' has the '''ng''' sound of the '''n''' in '''úncle''' and accidentally in '''páncake'''.
-Final '''c''' is rather rare, except in the suffix -'''ic''': '''plástic, jurássic, elástic, chrónic''' (k-) '''mánic'''; and '''Éric, chìc''' (sh-), '''Cádillac, Póntiac, Potômac''' and in abbreviations: '''tálc, mác'''.  But *téc is '''téch'''.
-To keep the '''c''' hard and prevent it becoming a hiss, a '''k''' is added to -'''ic''' before -'''ing''' and -'''ed''': '''frólicking, pánicking, políticking, tráfficked'''.
-But '''ck''' is much more common in monosyllables: '''síck, thíck, píck, wíck, críck, báck, déck, sóck, lúck, and as in jácket, crícket, píckle, níckel, pécker, lúcky'''.
-After two vowel letters, '''k''' alone is always used: '''toòk, spoôk, sêek, roòk, wêek, lêak liquid = lêek vegetable, wêek, spêak, breâk, shrìêk'''.
 ==Computer character encoding==
 In [[Unicode]] the [[majuscule|capital]] C is codepoint U+0043 and the [[minuscule|lowercase]] c is U+0063.
@@ Line 96: / Line 84: @@
 The [[EBCDIC]] code for capital C is 195 for lowercase c is 131.
-The [[numeric character reference]]s in [[HTML]] and [[XML]] are "<tt>&amp;#67;</tt>" and "<tt>&amp;#99;</tt>" for upper and lower case respectively.
+The [[numeric character reference]]s in [[HTML]] and [[XML]] are "<tt>&amp;#67;</tt>" and "<tt>&amp;#99;</tt>" for upper and lower case respectively.[[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]]
-==See also==
-*[[Spelling pronunciation]]
-*[[Letter (alphabet)]]
-*[[Alphabet]]
-*[[Writing system]]
-*[[Orthography]]
-*[[Written language]]
-*[[Writing]]

C (letter): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:00, 23 July 2024

Contents

Use in English

Mc- and Mac-, etc.

Use in Turkish

Scientific uses

Computer character encoding

Navigation menu

C (letter): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 16:00, 23 July 2024

Use in English

Mc- and Mac-, etc.

Use in Turkish

Scientific uses

Computer character encoding

Navigation menu

Search