PHONETIC CHARACTER. In sound the Latin c originally had the same force as the Greek ganuna (I') . from which it is adapted, and this old value is seen in such Latin abbreviations of proper names as C. for Gains, Cn. for Omens; but in Latin C later began to take on the force and function of K, which was falling into dis use, and a new letter G (a mollification of C) was introduced to represent that voiced guttural g-sound. (See G.) The 7:-sound of c continued in Latin down to at least the Eighth Century ra flIn 01114..:1;o1, Pro • fln,r1 eho I- :, rtl...n IL. t•T• in the Anglo-Saxon or Old English, when 'king' is written eyeing, and 'queen' drill,. as there was no q during that period. The later differ entiation or changes of the sound of c from the old stop or k-sound in come to the hissing or sibilant s-sound in cetaccons, with similar modi fications, is largely due to the influence of a following i, c. These front vowels being farther forward in the mouth than a, o, u, tend to change the character of the checked sound into a split or hiss. As examples of such sibilant de velopments, compare the pronunciation of Latin Cicero (Kikero). Italian Chicheeo, English Niscro, or again the common English pronuncia tion of eici, 'I conquered' ('visr instead of in real, vidi, rid. Of like character is such an interchange as Latin cc/tam, 'hundred:' Sanskrit, data. Examples of palatalization or splitting of e to eh, before e are especially from Anglo-Saxon into modern English, through the Southern Dialect—e.g. AS. gild
(kill), Eng. child; AS. ecor7, Eng. churl; AS. Eng. scck and beseeeh; or, again Lat. capul, 'head:' Fr. chef, Eng. chief ; Lat. canto, Eng. chant. The phonetic laws governing such interehanges as c with g, It in the Indo-Germanie languages may be better understood by pro nouncing in succession the syllables ac, ea (with perfect closure), ag, ga (with the same closure, but voiced), and oh, ha (with imperfect clo sure) ; hence, such alternates as Lat.. alter, 'field,' Eng. Lat. due (lead, draw), Eng.
lag; Lat. coals, 'dog.' Gk. KVV-, AS. han-d, 'hound.' (See PHONETIC LAWS. ) In usage, as a letter compared with k, the Germanic alpha bets, which are under obligation to the Greek as well as to the Latin, adopted 7:, from the Greek kappa. to represent the guttural sound. For this reason, c in German and Swedish, etc., hardly occurs outside of words of Romance ori gin. In Modern English c is practically su perfluous, as far as sound-representation is necessarily eoncerned:`the letter k might easily take its place in recording the stop-sound of c before a, o. 5, and the letters might readily be substituted for the hissing sound of c be fore e, i.
As ABBREVIATION. In music C is the first tone, or keynote of the diatonic scale of C major. C = 100; C. = Centigrade (thermometer scale) B.C. = before Christ; c. = cent, centime, etc.: and it is used in some other familiar abbrevia tions.