K

The letter K comes from the Greek letter Κ (kappa), which was taken from the Semitic kaph, the symbol for an open hand.[http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50124982?query_type=word&queryword=k&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=1&search_id=h5Sx-nTaC9b-24269&hilite=50124982 "K". The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1977, online]{{registration required}}{{dead link|date=September 2014}}{{cbignore}} This, in turn, was likely adapted by Semitic tribes who had lived in Egypt from the hieroglyph for "hand" representing /ḏ/ in the Egyptian word for hand, ⟨ḏ-r-t⟩ (likely pronounced {{IPA|/ˈcʼaːɾat/}} in Old Egyptian). The Semites evidently assigned it the sound value {{IPA|/k/}} instead, because their word for hand started with that sound.{{cite journal |first=Cyrus H. |last=Gordon|title=The Accidental Invention of the Phonemic Alphabet|journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies|volume=29|issue=3|pages=193–197|jstor=543451|doi=10.1086/372069 |year=1970|s2cid=161870047}}

K was brought into the Latin alphabet with the name ka /kaː/ to differentiate it from C, named ce (pronounced /keː/) and Q, named qu and pronounced /kuː/. In the earliest Latin inscriptions, the letters C, K and Q were all used to represent the sounds {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}} (which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, Q was used before a rounded vowel (e.g. {{angbr|EQO}} 'ego'), K before /a/ (e.g. {{angbr|KALENDIS}} 'calendis'), and C elsewhere. Later, the use of C and its variant G replaced most usages of K and Q. K survived only in a few fossilized forms, such as Kalendae, "the calends".{{cite book |title=New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin |first=Andrew L. |last=Sihler |edition=illustrated |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-508345-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeHmqKY2BqoC |page=21 |access-date=2016-10-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109231225/https://books.google.com/books?id=IeHmqKY2BqoC |archive-date=2016-11-09 |url-status=live }}

After Greek words were taken into Latin, the kappa was transliterated as a C. Loanwords from other alphabets with the sound {{IPA|/k/}} were also transliterated with C. Hence, the Romance languages generally use C, in imitating Classical Latin's practice, and have K only in later loanwords from other language groups. The Celtic languages also tended to use C instead of K, and this influence carried over into Old English.

The letter usually represents {{IPAslink|k}} in English. It is silent when it comes before {{angbr|n}} at the start of a stem, e.g.:

• At the start of a word (knight, knife, knot, know, and knee)
• After a prefix (unknowable)
• In compounds (penknife)

English is now the only Germanic language to productively use "hard" {{angbr|c}} (outside the digraph {{angbr|ck}}) rather than {{angbr|k}} (although Dutch uses it in loan words of Latin origin, and the pronunciation of these words follows the same hard/soft distinction as in English).{{citation needed|reason=There are a lot of Germanic languages; we need to link to a source who states that none of the others use hard C productively|date=October 2015}}

Like J, X, Q, and Z, the letter K is not used very frequently in English. It is the fifth least frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency in words of about 0.8%.

In most languages where it is employed, this letter represents the sound {{IPAslink|k}} (with or without aspiration) or some similar sound.

The Latinization of Modern Greek also uses this letter for {{IPAslink|k}}. However, before the front vowels ({{IPA|/e, i/}}), this is rendered as {{IPAblink|c}}, which can be considered a separate phoneme.

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses {{angbr IPA|k}} for the voiceless velar plosive.

{{main article|K (disambiguation)}}

• In the International System of Units (SI), the SI prefix for one thousand is kilo-, officially abbreviated as k: for example, prefixed to metre/meter or its abbreviation m, kilometre or km signifies a thousand metres. As such, people occasionally represent numbers in a non-standard notation by replacing the last three zeros of the general numeral with K, as in 30K for 30,000.
• "K" replacing "C" in satiric misspelling.
• K is the unit symbol for the kelvin, used to measure thermodynamic temperature (the degree sign is not used with this symbol).
• K is the chemical symbol for element potassium (from its Latin name {{lang|la|kalium}}).
• Triangle K.
• In chess notation, the letter K represents the King (WK for White King, BK for Black King).
• In baseball scoring, the letter K is used to represent a strikeout. A forwards oriented K represents a "strikeout swinging"; a backwards oriented K (File:Backwards K.svg) represents a "strikeout looking".
• As an abbreviation for OK, often used in emails and short text messages.
• K is used as a slang term for Ketamine among recreational drug users.
• In the CMYK color model, K represents black ink.
• In International Morse code, it is used to mean "over".

{{cite web

|url=http://morsecode.scphillips.com/morse.html

|title=International Morse Code

|author=Stephen Phillips

|date=2009-06-04

|access-date=2014-02-10

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140212162534/http://morsecode.scphillips.com/morse.html

|archive-date=2014-02-12

|url-status=dead

}}

• In fracture mechanics, K is used to represent the stress intensity factor.
• In physics, k usually stands for the Boltzmann constant.
• In Argentinian politics, K is used as a symbol for Kirchnerism.
• K (logic).
• In the United Kingdom under the old system (before 2001), a licence plate that begins with "K" for example "K123 XYZ" would correspond to a vehicle registered between August 1, 1992, and July 31, 1993. Again under the old system, a licence plate that ends with "K" for example "ABC 123K" would correspond to a vehicle that was registered between August 1, 1971, and July 31, 1972.
• On Idaho license plates, an initial K in the plate number indicates it was issued in Kootenai County.

• 𐤊: Semitic letter Kaph, from which the following symbols originally derive:
• {{not a typo|Κ κ/ϰ}}: Greek letter kappa, from which K derives
• К к: Cyrillic letter Ka, also derived from Kappa
• K with diacritics: Ƙ ƙ, Ꝁ ꝁ, Ḱ ḱ, Ǩ ǩ, Ḳ ḳ, Ķ ķ, ᶄ, Ⱪ ⱪ, Ḵ ḵ
• Ꞣ and ꞣ were used in Latvian orthography before 1921{{Cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UA720.pdf |title=Latin Extended-D |access-date=2019-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190325152831/http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/UA720.pdf |archive-date=2019-03-25 |url-status=live }}
• The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet uses various forms of the letter K:{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf|title=L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS|date=2002-03-20|first1=Michael|last1=Everson|author-link1=Michael Everson|display-authors=etal|access-date=2018-03-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219081033/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf|archive-date=2018-02-19|url-status=live}}
• {{Unichar|1D0B|LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL K}}
• {{Unichar|1D37|MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL K}}
• {{Unichar|1D4F|MODIFIER LETTER SMALL K}}
• {{not a typo|ₖ}}: Subscript small k was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902.{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf|title=L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet|date=2009-01-27|first1=Klaas|last1=Ruppel|first2=Tero|last2=Aalto|first3=Michael|last3=Everson|access-date=2018-03-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014359/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf|archive-date=2017-10-11|url-status=live}}
• Ʞ ʞ: Turned capital and small k were used in transcriptions of the Dakota language in publications of the American Board of Ethnology in the late 19th century.{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2012/12270-n4297-beta-etc.pdf|title=L2/12-270: Proposal for the addition of ten Latin characters to the UCS|date=2012-07-26|first1=Michael|last1=Everson|first2=Denis|last2=Jacquerye|first3=Chris|last3=Lilley|author-link3=Chris Lilley (computer scientist)|access-date=2018-03-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330042809/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2012/12270-n4297-beta-etc.pdf|archive-date=2019-03-30|url-status=live}} Turned small k was also used for a velar click in the International Phonetic Alphabet but its use was withdrawn in 1970.
• 𝼐: Small capital turned k is used as a click letter{{Cite web|title=L2/20-115R: Unicode request for additional phonetic click letters|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20115r-click-letters.pdf|date=2020-07-10|first1=Kirk|last1=Miller|first2=Bonny|last2=Sands|access-date=2022-10-12|archive-date=2022-10-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008020935/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20115r-click-letters.pdf|url-status=live}}
• 𝼃: Small letter reversed k is used as a Voice Quality Symbol (VoQS){{Cite web|title=L2/20-116R: Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20116r-ext-ipa-voqs-expansion.pdf|date=2020-07-11|first1=Kirk|last1=Miller|first2=Martin|last2=Ball|access-date=2022-10-12|archive-date=2020-10-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024034839/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20116r-ext-ipa-voqs-expansion.pdf|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|title=L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21021-consolidated-ipa.pdf|date=2020-12-07|first=Deborah|last=Anderson|access-date=2022-10-12|archive-date=2021-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108092102/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21021-consolidated-ipa.pdf|url-status=live}}

• ₭ : Lao kip
• Ꝃ ꝃ, Ꝅ ꝅ : Various forms of K were used for medieval scribal abbreviations{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06027-n3027-medieval.pdf|title=L2/06-027: Proposal to add Medievalist characters to the UCS|date=2006-01-30|first1=Michael|last1=Everson|first2=Peter|last2=Baker|first3=António|last3=Emiliano|first4=Florian|last4=Grammel|first5=Odd Einar|last5=Haugen|first6=Diana|last6=Luft|first7=Susana|last7=Pedro|first8=Gerd|last8=Schumacher|first9=Andreas|last9=Stötzner|access-date=2018-03-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919051622/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06027-n3027-medieval.pdf|archive-date=2018-09-19|url-status=live}}

{{anchor|Codes for computing}}

{{charmap

| 004B | 006B | 212A | FF2B | FF4B | name1 = Latin Capital Letter K | name2 =Latin Small Letter K | name3 =Kelvin Sign | name4 = FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K | name5 = FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER K

| map1 = EBCDIC family | map1char1 = D2 | map1char2 = 92

| map2 = ASCII{{efn|Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.}} | map2char1 = 4B | map2char2 = 6B

}}

{{Letter other reps

|NATO=Kilo

|Morse=–·–

|Character=K

|Braille=⠅

|fingerspelling=K

}}

{{clear}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Commons-inline}}
• {{Wiktionary-inline|K}}
• {{Wiktionary-inline|k}}

{{Latin alphabet|K|}}

Category:ISO basic Latin letters