Cn.

Etymology: the third letter of the Roman alphabet, was originally identical with the Greek Gamma, Γ, and Semitic Gimel, whence it derived its form through the successive types ?, ?, ?. The Greek Kappa, Κ, being from the first little used by the Romans, ? functioned in earlier Latin both as /ɡ/ and /k/; the latter sound being the more frequent came to be viewed as the more appropriate to C, and about 300–230 b.c., a modified character, ? or ?, was introduced for the /ɡ/ sound, and ? itself retained for the /k/ sound. Hence, in the classical period and after, G was treated as the phonetic representative of Gamma, and ? as the equivalent of Kappa, in the transliteration of Greek words into Roman spelling, as in ΚΑΔΜΟΣ, ΚΥΡΟΣ, ΦΩΚΙΣ, in Roman letters CADMVS, CYRVS, PHOCIS. When the Roman alphabet was introduced into Britain, C had only the sound /k/; and this value of the letter has been retained by all the insular Celts: in Welsh, Irish, Gaelic, C, c, is still only = /k/. The Old English or ‘Anglo-Saxon’ writing was learned from the Celts, apparently of Ireland; hence C, c, in Old English, was also originally = /k/: the words kin, break, broken, thick, seek, were in Old English written cyn, brecan, brocen, þicc, séoc. But during the course of the Old English period, the k-sound before e and i became palatalized, and had by the 10th cent. advanced nearly or quite to the sound of /tʃ/, though still written c, as in cir(i)ce, wrecc(e)a. On the continent, meanwhile, a similar phonetic change had also been going on. Original Latin C (= k) before e, i, had by palatalization advanced in Italy to the sound of /tʃ/, and in France still further to that of /ts/. Yet for these new sounds the old character C, c, was still retained before e and i, the letter thus acquiring two distinct values. Moreover the sound /k/ also occurred in French before e and i (chiefly as a representative of Latin qu); this was now expressed in Northern French by the Greek letter Κ, k; so that the sound /k/ had two symbols, k and c, while the symbol c had two sounds /k/ and /ts/. These French inconsistencies as to C and K were, after the Norman Conquest, applied to the writing of English, which caused a considerable re-spelling of the Old English words. Thus while Old English candel, clif, corn, crop, cú, remained unchanged, Cent, cǽg (cég), cyng, brece, séoce, were now (without any change of sound) spelt Kent, keȝ, kyng, breke, seoke; even cniht was subsequently spelt kniht, knight, and þic, þicc, became thik, thikk, thick. The Old English cw- was also at length (very unnecessarily) displaced by the French qw, qu, so that the Old English cwén, cwic, became Middle English qwen, quen, qwik, quik, now queen, quick. The sound /tʃ/ to which Old English palatalized c had advanced, also occurred in French, chiefly (in Central French) from Latin c before a. In French it was represented by ch, as in champ, cher < Latin campum, cārum; and this spelling was now introduced into English: the Hatton Gospels, written about 1160, have in Matthew i-iii, child, chyld, riche, mychel, for the cild, rice, mycel, of the Old English version whence they were copied: this was, phonetically, an improvement. In these cases, the Old English c gave place to k, qu, ch; but, on the other hand, c in its new value of /ts/ came in largely in French words like processiun, emperice, grace, and was also substituted for ts in a few Old English words, as miltse, bletsien, in early Middle English milce, blecien. By the end of the 13th cent. both in France and England, this sound /ts/ was reduced to simple /s/; and from that date c before e, i, y, has been, phonetically, a duplicate or subsidiary letter to s; used either for ‘etymological’ reasons, as in lance, cent, or (in defiance of etymology) to avoid the ambiguity due to the ‘etymological’ use of s for /z/, as in ace, mice, once, pence, defence.Thus, on the plea of showing the etymology, we write advise, devise, instead of advize, devize, which obliges us to write advice, device, dice, ice, mice, twice, etc., in defiance of the etymology; bad example has extended this to hence, pence, defence, etc., where there is no plea whatever for c. Former generations also wrote sence for sense. Hence, in modern English, C has (1) the ‘hard’ sound /k/ before a, o, u, before a consonant (except h), and when final, as in cab, cot, cut, claw, crow, acme, cycle, sac, tic, epic; (2) before e, i, y, it has the ‘soft’ sound /s/. In all words from Old English or Old French, final c is avoided: the /k/ sound being written k or ck, as in beak, meek, oak, book, bark, balk, bank, pack, peck, pick, rock. This is probably due to the claims of derivatives like meeker, oaken, barking, rocky, where c could not be used. Final c however is written in modern words from Latin, Greek, or other languages, and (of late) in the ending -ic, as in sac, tic, epic, critic, music, picnic. In the rare cases in which this c is followed in inflection by e or i, it is necessary to change it to ck, as in physicking, mimicking, frolicking, trafficker, picnicker. When the /s/ sound is final, it must be written -ce, as in trace, ice, thrice, and this final e must be retained in compounds before a, o, u, as in trace-able, peace-able. (3) Ci (rarely ce) preceding another vowel has frequently the sound of /ʃ/, esp. in the endings -cious, -cial, -cion, as atrocious, glacial, coercion (ocean). This sound (which is also taken by t in the same position) has been developed in comparatively modern times by palatalization of /s/. In a few words from foreign languages, c retains the foreign pronunciation, as in Italian cicerone /tʃitʃeˈrone/. The combination CH virtually constitutes a distinct letter, having a history and sound of its own, and as such it receives a separate place in the alphabet of some languages, e.g. Spanish, Welsh. In English it is not so treated, and the ch- words are placed in Dictionaries and alphabetical lists between ce- and ci-. This inclusion of ch in the middle of C is one reason why the latter occupies so large a space in the Dictionary: C is virtually two letters in one, since beside the series ca-, ce-, ci-, cl-, etc., there is the parallel series cha-, che-, chi-, chl-, etc. For the history and sounds of ch, see before the beginning of the ch- words.c1000 Ælfric Gram. (Z.) iii. 6 B, c, d, g, p, t, geendjað on e.1588 H. Oldcastle & J. Mellis Briefe Instr. Accompts sig. Dvij Goe to your Calender to the letter C. and there enter Chyst.a1682 Sir T. Browne Certain Misc. Tracts (1683) vii. 126 The Long Poem of Hugbaldus the Monk, wherein every word beginneth with a C.1885 Goschen in Pall Mall Gaz. 5 Nov. 6/1 The ‘Three C's’ of Foreign Policy..cleanhandedness, continuity, and courage.1887 Spectator 19 Mar. 395/1 [He] writes Corinthians now with a ‘C’, as Professor Jowett writes it.