C

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

Phonetic use

/k/ developed palatal and velar allophones in Latin, probably due to Etruscan influence. The Romance 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. In English and French, C takes the "hard" value voiceless velar plosive finally and before A, O, and U, and the "soft" value voiceless alveolar fricative before E, I, or Y. Romance languages obey similar rules, but the soft value is different in several languages, taking on /θ/ in European Castilian and {{IPA|/ʧ/}} (like English CH) in Italian and Romanian.

Related Topics:
Palatal - Velar - Allophone - Latin - Romance languages - English - Vulgar Latin - French - Voiceless velar plosive - Voiceless alveolar fricative - /θ/ - Castilian - Italian - Romanian

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Other languages use C with different values, such as {{IPA|/k/}} regardless of position in Irish, Welsh, {{IPA|/θ/}} in Fijian, {{IPA|/ʤ/}} in Turkish, Tatar, Azeri, {{IPA|/ʦ/}} in Czech, Croatian, Esperanto, Hungarian, Polish, Romanized Chinese, Serbian.

Related Topics:
Irish - Welsh - Fijian - Turkish - Tatar - Azeri - Czech - Croatian - Esperanto - Hungarian - Polish - Romanized - Chinese - Serbian

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There are several common digraphs with C, the most common being CH, which in some languages such as 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 voiceless velar fricative, usually when transliterating Greek Χ or Hebrew. CH takes various values in other languages, such as Voiceless palatal fricative, {{IPA|/k/}}, or {{IPA|/x/}} in German, Voiceless postalveolar fricative in French, {{IPA|/k/}} in 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 (but some other Germanic languages use KK instead, such as Dutch and Norwegian). The digraph CZ is found in Polish and CS in Hungarian, both representing {{IPA|/ʧ/}}.

Related Topics:
German - Voiceless velar fricative - Greek - Voiceless palatal fricative - Voiceless postalveolar fricative - French - Mandarin Chinese - Germanic languages - Swedish - Dutch - Norwegian

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As a phonetic symbol, lowercase c is the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal plosive, and capital C is the X-SAMPA symbol for the voiceless palatal fricative.

Related Topics:
Phonetic - International Phonetic Alphabet - X-SAMPA - Voiceless palatal plosive - Voiceless palatal fricative

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