C

:This page is about the letter C itself. For other uses of C, see C (disambiguation).

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C (lowercase c) is the third letter of the Roman alphabet.

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In the Etruscan language, plosive consonants had no distinctive voicing, so they took over Greek Γ (Gamma) to write their /k/.

Related Topics:
Etruscan language - Plosive consonant - Voicing - Greek - Γ

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In the beginning, the Romans used C for both /k/ and /g/, only later adding a horizontal bar at right-center to produce G.

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It is possible but uncertain that C represented only /g/ at an even earlier time, while K might have been used for /k/.

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Some scholars claim that the Semitic ג (gîmel) pictured a camel, but most assume it was probably gaml (a throwing stick/boomerang).

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Other alphabets have letters identical to C in form but not in use and derivation, in particular the Cyrillic letter Es which derives from one form of the Greek letter sigma, known as the "lunate sigma" from its resembalnce to a crescent moon.

Related Topics:
Cyrillic - Es - Greek - Sigma

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