C, c [Called ‘cee’]. The 3rd
LETTER of the Roman
ALPHABET as used for English. It descends from the hook-shaped Phoenician symbol
gimel (a name probably related to
camel), which represented the voiced velar stop /g/. This letter was altered by the Greeks to Γ (
gamma), with the same sound value. Gamma was then adapted by the Etruscans to represent the voiceless velar stop /k/, a use taken over by the Romans. In Old English,
c represented both the sound /k/ as in
cynn (‘kin’) and the sound
ch /tʃ/ as in
cinn (‘chin’). In the Romance languages, and in English under the influence of Norman French,
c acquired a second palatalized pronunciation /s/ before
e and
i: a ‘soft’ pronunciation, as in
cell and
cite, contrasting with the ‘hard’
c in
crown. This development occurred after 1066 and resulted in a shift of spelling patterns and sound-symbol correspondences, Old English forms such as
cild,
cyng,
cwic,
is becoming
child,
king,
quick,
ice. In addition, such
c/k pairs arose as
cat and
kitten,
cow and
kine.
Sound values
C has the greatest sound range of all English consonants, overlapping with the values of
k,
q,
s,
t,
x: (1) It has the hard velar value /k/ before the vowels
a,
o,
u (
cat,
cot,
cut) and before consonants (
clip,
creep,
act,
tics). (2) It has the soft, palatalized value /s/ before
e,
i,
y:
cell,
city,
cite,
cycle,
fancy. (3) When
ce,
ci are followed by another vowel or vowels, usually pronounced as a schwa, soft
c is often modified to a
sh-sound:
ocean,
herbaceous,
special,
efficient,
suspicion. (4) In some sets of derivationally associated words,
c alternates between the above values: /k/ and /s/ in
electric/electricity, /k/ anxd /ʃ/ in
logic/logician. (5) Elsewhere, especially in some loans,
c is soft before
ae,
oe in Latin
caesura and Greek
coelacanth, soft in French
façade (often written without the cedilla, as
facade), and generally hard in
Celt/Celtic. It has a
ch-sound as in
cheese, in such loans from Italian as
cello,
Medici. (6) The
c is silent in
indict,
muscle (but note
muscular), and
victuals (‘vittles’), and may be regarded as silent before q in
acquaint,
acquire, etc., and after x in
excel,
except, etc. (7) The values of
cz in
Czech (/tʃ/) and
czar (/z/), also spelt
tsar, are unique.
Double C.
The following patterns for the pronunciation of double
c are consistent with the basic hard and soft values of
c: (1) Hard before
a,
o,
u:
saccade,
account,
occult. (2) Hard then soft before
e,
i (with the same value as
x):
accept,
accident (but note the hard value in
soccer).
CH.
(1) Vernacular. Affricate /tʃ/ in word-initial position (
chase,
cheese,
choose) and word-finally in
each,
teach. After single short vowels,
t usually precedes
ch:
match,
fetch,
kitchen,
botch,
hutch (but note
t after a long vowel in
aitch and no
t after short
ou in
touch). However, no
t occurs in several grammatical words (
much,
such,
which), in
rich, after another consonant (
belch,
lunch), and in some longer words (
duchess). (2) Greek and Italian. The value of /k/ in words derived from Greek (
chaos,
technique,
monarch) and in loans from Italian before
e,
i (
scherzo,
Chianti). (3) French. Commonly, a
sh-sound in loans from French:
Charlotte,
chef,
machine. (4) German. The
ch in
Bach,
Aachen is generally pronounced with /k/, but may have the German value /x/, especially in ScoE. (5) Scottish. A voiced velar fricative in many ScoE words (
loch,
pibroch) and in traditional Scots (
bricht,
micht,
nicht = bright,
might,
night). Outside Scotland, such words as
loch,
clarsach are usually pronounced with /k/. (6) Other values. In
spinach,
sandwich, and a common local pronunciation for the English city of Norwich, the
ch is often voiced (‘spinnidge’, ‘san(g)widge’, ‘Norridge’). In
yacht (from Dutch), and
fuchsia (from German), the
ch has probably never been sounded in English.
CK.
(1)
CK with the value /k/ is common after short vowels in short words:
cackle,
peck,
flicker,
lock,
suck. The ending
-ic was formerly spelt
-ick in such words as
logic (
logick) and
magic (
magick), the shorter form becoming general first in AmE, then spreading to BrE in the 19c. Recent French loans like
bloc,
chic,
tic have only
c. (2) When suffixes are added to words ending in
c, the hard value can be preserved by adding
k:
panic/panicking,
picnic/picnicker (but note
arc/arced,
arcing). An inhabitant of
Quebec may be a
Quebecker or a
Quebecer, both pronounced with /k/.
SC.
Before
e,
i, the value of
sc is generally that of
s alone:
scene,
science,
ascetic,
descend,
disciple,
coalesce. Some words containing
sc acquired the
c fairly late, sometimes by mistaken etymology:
scent,
scissors, and
scythe were written
sent,
sizars, and
sithe until the 17c. When followed by schwa,
sc before
e or
i has the
sh-sound of
c alone in such a position:
conscience,
conscious,
luscious. Loans from Italian also give
sc the
sh-sound before
e,
i:
crescendo,
fascist.
SCH.
(1) Pronounced as /sk/ when it contains Greek
ch:
scheme,
schizoid,
school. (2) Pronounced as if
sh in loans from German:
schadenfreude,
Schubert.
Schist is usually pronounced as in German (‘shist’), despite its ultimate Greek origin and its arrival in English through French. Greek-derived
schism (spelt
scism until the 15c) is either ‘skism’ or ‘sism’.
Variation
(1) The use of
c may depend on orthographic context. Word-finally, especially after long vowels, the hard value is normally represented by
k (
take,
speak,
like,
oak,
rook,
lurk), but when such forms as
bicycle and
Michael are abbreviated,
c becomes
k (
bike and
Mike). If
l or
r follows,
c may be found:
treacle,
acre. (2) A soft value in word-final position may be spelt
-ce or
-se: compare
mortice/mortise,
fence/tense,
fleece/geese and BrE
licence/license. (3) Sometimes, although there is no
c in a base word, a secondary form has the letter:
louse/lice,
mouse/mice,
die/dice,
penny/pence,
despise/despicable,
opaque/opacity. (4) There is variation between
c and
t among some adjectives derived from nouns in
c:
face/facial,
palace/palatial,
race/racial,
space/spatial,
finance/financial,
substance/substantial. (5) There has long been uncertainty about when to write
ct and when to write x in such pairs as
connection/connexion and
inflection/inflexion, but not now in
complexion (formerly also
complection). (6) There is more or less free variation in the pairs
czar/tsar and
disc/disk, and a mild tendency for
cs and
cks to be replaced by
x, as in
facsimile shortened to
fax and
Dickson also spelt
Dixon. (7) Common spelling errors include
supersede spelt *
supercede on the analogy of
precede, and
consensus spelt *
concensus through the influence of
census.
American and British differences
(1) AmE
defense,
offense (and optionally
pretense) contrast with BrE
defence,
offence,
pretence. (2) In BrE, there is a distinction between
practice (noun) and
practise (verb), but not in AmE, which has
practice for both. (3) Only
vice occurs in BrE, but AmE distinguishes
vice (moral depravity) from
vise (tool). (4) BrE has an anomalous hard
c before
e in
sceptic (contrast
sceptre and
septic), but AmE has an unambiguous
k in
skeptic. (5) AmE prefers
mollusk to
mollusc, the only possible spelling in BrE. (6) AmE prefers
ck in
check to
que in
cheque, the only possible spelling in BrE. (7)
Sch in
schedule has the value
sh in BrE,
sk in AmE. Compare
G,
K,
Q,
X. See
HARD AND SOFT.
