K

K or k (pronounced [k ʰ a ː ] ) is the eleventh letter of the Latin alphabet and a consonant. The letter K in German texts an average frequency of 1.21 per cent. He is the 19th - most frequent letter in German texts.

Pronunciation

The letter K represents the voiceless velar plosive [ k]. In Swedish it may also be for the voiceless fricative alveolopalatalen [ ɕ ] are.

Origin

In the proto- Semitic alphabet, the letter a palm dar. In the Phoenician alphabet, the letter was highly stylized. He had the name Kaph (palm) and stood for the phonetic value [ k]. The Phoenician Yodh character was written partly as a mirrored Kaph, should not be confused with this though.

The Kaph was adopted as Kappa in the Greek alphabet and also had the phonetic value [ k]. At the beginning of the opening of the K was still left after the Greeks -to-right - left of the changed text direction to the letter was mirrored.

The Etruscans took over the kappa in the non-mirrored version. The Etruscan language had no voiced plosives. The Etruscans used instead three letters to / k / reproduce. The K was used to reproduce [k ] before [a]. In addition, it was used only in special situations.

The Romans took the K for the phonetic value of [k ] in their alphabet and reflected later in analogy to the Greeks, as changed the writing direction. However, at least since the development of the classical Latin, the letter eked out a shadowy existence - the sound [ k] was reproduced mainly by the letter C. In Romance languages ​​, this is still the case, K is used there only in foreign words. Over time, the phonetic value of C has moved in front of bright vowels from [k ] to [ ts ] in Latin, namely before [e ] and [ i]. This sound shift must have taken place between the second and the fourth century after Christ. Therefore, use other languages ​​, especially the K, to write the sound [ k] and thus clearly represent him.

Quote

Youth vocabulary

We K of youngsters often used as an abbreviation for the confirmatory Okay. The K is, however, usually only used while chatting in chat rooms such as WhatsApp or Facebook. Pronounced as it is not K but as Kay. A sample sentence in the chat room:

Question: Can you bring me over the homework later? Answer: K ^ ^ Web Links

• Http://www.wam.umd.edu/ ~ rfradkin / alphapage.html
• Http://www.evolpub.com/LCA/VTLfacts.html

( based on it for letters with diacritics, inter alia, see list of Latin -based alphabets )

Kk kk kk lk ĸ Ǩǩ Ƙƙ Ⱪ ⱪ

• Latin letter