C (Letter)

C is the third letter of the Latin alphabet, written as an open curve. It is used in many languages worldwide, but the sound it represents varies considerably from language to language.

Its origin can be traced to the Phoenician letter gimel, thought originally to represent the /g/ sound. The Greeks created the letter gamma (Γ), and the Etruscans and Latin speakers modified it to the curved form known today.

Sound

In early Latin, C represented the /k/ sound. After the development of Romance languages, a sound change called palatalization occurred—a shift in pronunciation based on the following letter. As a result, many European languages assign C two sounds: a hard sound (/k/) when it precedes a, o, u; and a soft sound (/s/ or /tʃ/) when it precedes e, i, y.

In English, C generally represents /k/ or /s/. In Italian it represents /k/ or /tʃ/ (like 'ch' in English). In Turkish, C consistently represents a sound like English 'j', while Ç represents /tʃ/. In Slavic languages written in Latin script, such as Polish and Czech, C usually represents the /ts/ sound.

Somali

In the Latin orthography of Somali, officially adopted in 1972, C does not represent the sound it has in English. Instead, it represents the ayn (ع), a pharyngeal sound of Arabic, as in the words cilmi, caano, and ciid. The /k/ sound is represented by K, and /s/ by S; consequently C does not appear in Somali words with the /tʃ/ sound represented by 'ch'.

Use in symbols

C is used in many scientific symbols. In science, °C denotes degrees Celsius, while c represents the speed of light in physics. In Roman numerals, C stands for one hundred. In computing, C is the name of a programming language developed in the 1970s and the basis for many other languages.