In the
Latin-based orthographies of many European
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
s, including
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, a distinction between hard and soft occurs in which represents two distinct
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
s. The sound of a hard often precedes the non-front vowels , and , and is that of the
voiceless velar stop
The voiceless velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k.
The sound is a very ...
, (as in ''car''). The sound of a soft , typically before , and , may be a
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
or
affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
, depending on the language. In English, the sound of soft is (as in the first and final c's in "
circumferen
ce").
There was no soft in
classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later periods ...
, where it was always pronounced as .
History
This
alternation is caused by a historical
palatalization of which took place in
Late Latin
Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...
, and led to a change in the pronunciation of the sound before the
front vowel
A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
s and .
Later, other languages not directly
descended from Latin, such as English, inherited this feature as an
orthographic convention.
English
General overview
In
English orthography
English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and p ...
, the pronunciation of hard is and of soft is generally .
Yod-coalescence
The phonological history of the English language includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters.
H-cluster reductions
The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, inv ...
has altered instances of ─ particularly in unstressed syllables ─ to in most varieties of English, affecting words such as ''ocean'', ''logician'' and ''magician''. Generally, the soft pronunciation occurs before ; it also occurs before and in a number of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and Latin loanwords (such as ''
coelacanth
The coelacanths ( ) are fish belonging to the order Actinistia that includes two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'': the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae''), primarily found near the Comoro Islands off the east coast ...
'', ''
caecum
The cecum or caecum is a pouch within the peritoneum that is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine. It is typically located on the right side of the body (the same side of the body as the appendix, to which it is joined). The wo ...
'', ''
caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caes ...
''). The hard pronunciation occurs everywhere else except in the letter combinations , , and which have distinct pronunciation rules. generally represents before , as in ''accident'', ''succeed'', and ''coccyx''.
There are exceptions to the general rules of hard and soft :
* The in the words ''Celt'' and ''Celtic'' was traditionally soft, but since the late 19th century, the hard pronunciation has also been recognized in conscious imitation of the
classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later periods ...
pronunciation of ''Celtae;'' see
Pronunciation of Celtic
The various names used since classical times for the people known today as the Celts are of disparate origins.
The names (''Keltoí'') and are used in Greek and Latin, respectively, to denote a people of the La Tène horizon in the region of t ...
. Welsh and Gaelic loanwords in English which retain their native spelling, such as ''ceilidh'', ''cistvaen'' (alternatively spelled ) or ''Cymric'', are also pronounced hard. The Irish and Welsh languages have no letter K, so all Cs are pronounced hard.
* The is hard in a handful of words like ''
arcing'', ''
synced''/''
syncing'', ''
chicer'' (), and ''
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
er'' (alternatively spelled ) that involve a word normally spelled with a final followed by an affix starting with or ; ''
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
'' and ''
recce
Recce may refer to:
* Reconnaissance, military scouting
* SEAL Recon Rifle, a rifle used by US Navy SEALs also called the ''Recce Rifle''
* Recce (filmmaking), a pre-shoot reconnaissance of a film location
* South African Special Forces Brigade ...
'' also have a hard .
* The in ''
sceptic
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
'', and its
derivatives
The derivative of a function is the rate of change of the function's output relative to its input value.
Derivative may also refer to:
In mathematics and economics
* Brzozowski derivative in the theory of formal languages
* Formal derivative, an ...
such as ''sceptical'' and ''scepticism'', represents . These words are alternative spellings to and , respectively.
* The of ''
flaccid
Flaccid paralysis is a neurological condition characterized by weakness or paralysis and reduced muscle tone without other obvious cause (e.g., trauma). This abnormal condition may be caused by disease or by trauma affecting the nerves associated ...
'' now sometimes represents a single soft pronunciation , which is a simplification of .
* The is
silent before in ''
indict
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...
'' and its derivatives such as ''indictment'', in the name of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
''
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
'', and in some pronunciations of ''
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
'' and ''
Antarctic
The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
''.
* In a few cases such as
facade and
limacon, a soft appears before and is optionally indicated to be soft by means of attaching a
cedilla
A cedilla ( ; from Spanish) or cedille (from French , ) is a hook or tail ( ¸ ) added under certain letters as a diacritical mark to modify their pronunciation. In Catalan, French, and Portuguese (called cedilha) it is used only under the ' ...
to its bottom, giving ''façade'', ''limaçon''.
A
silent can occur after at the end of a word or component
root word
A root (or root word) is the core of a word that is irreducible into more meaningful elements. In morphology, a root is a morphologically simple unit which can be left bare or to which a prefix or a suffix can attach. The root word is the prima ...
part of a larger word. The can serve a
marking function indicating that the preceding is soft, as in ''dance'' and ''enhancement''. The silent often additionally indicates that the vowel before is a
long vowel
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, f ...
, as in ''rice'', ''mace'', and ''pacesetter''.
When adding suffixes with (such as ''-ed'', ''-ing'', ''-er'', ''-est'', ''-ism'', ''-ist'', ''-y'', and ''-ie'') to root words ending in , the final of the root word is often dropped and the root word retains the soft pronunciation as in ''danced'', ''dancing'', and ''dancer'' from ''dance''. The suffixes ''-ify'' and
''-ise/-ize'' can be added to most nouns and adjectives to form new verbs. The pronunciation of in newly coined words using these suffixes is not always clear. The digraph may be used to retain the hard pronunciation in inflections and derivatives of a word such as ''trafficking'' from the verb ''traffic''.
There are several cases in English in which hard and soft alternate with the addition of suffixes as in ''critic''/''criticism'' and ''electric''/''electricity'' (''electrician'' has a soft pronunciation of because of
''yod''-coalescence).
Letter combinations
A number of two-letter combinations or
digraphs follow distinct pronunciation patterns and do not follow the hard/soft distinction of . For example, may represent (as in ''chicken''), (as in ''chef''), or (as in ''choir''). Other letter combinations that don't follow the paradigm include , , , , , and . These come primarily from loanwords.
Besides a few examples (''recce'', ''soccer'', ''
Speccy''), fits neatly with the regular rules of : Before , the second is soft while the first is hard. Words such as ''accept'' and ''success'' are pronounced with and words such as ''succumb'' and ''accommodate'' are pronounced with . Exceptions include loanwords from
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
such as ''cappuccino'' with for .
Many placenames and other proper nouns with -''cester'' (from
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
''ceaster'', meaning
Roman station or
walled town
The following cities have, or historically had, defensive walls.
Africa
Algeria
* Algiers
* Ghardaïa
* Timimoun
Egypt
* Al-Fustat
* Cairo
* Damietta
See List of Egypt castles, forts, fortifications and city walls.
Ethiopia
* Harar
Libya
*A ...
) are pronounced with such as ''
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
'' (), ''
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
'' ( or ), and ''
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
'' (). The pronunciation occurs as a combination of a historically soft pronunciation and historical
elision
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
of the first vowel of the suffix.
Italian loanwords
The original spellings and pronunciations of
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
loanwords
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
have mostly been kept. Many English words that have been borrowed from Italian follow a distinct set of pronunciation rules corresponding to those in Italian. The Italian soft pronunciation is (as in ''cello'' and ''ciao''), while the hard is the same as in English. Italian orthography uses to indicate a hard pronunciation before or , analogous to English using (as in ''kill'' and ''keep'') and (as in ''mosquito'' and ''queue'').
In addition to hard and soft , the digraph represents when followed by or (as in ''crescendo'' and ''fascia''). Meanwhile, in Italian represents , not , but English-speakers commonly mispronounce it as due to familiarity with the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
pronunciation. Italian uses to indicate the
gemination
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
of before , , or before or . English does not usually geminate consonants and therefore loanwords with soft are pronounced with as with ''cappuccino'', pronounced .
Suffixation issues
Rarely, the use of unusual suffixed forms to create
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
s occurs. For example, the words ''ace'' and ''race'' are both standard words but adding ''-ate'' or ''-age'' (both productive affixes in English) would create spellings that seem to indicate hard pronunciations. ( and ''racage''). Potential remedies include altering the spelling to and ''rasage'', though no standard conventions exist.
Replacement with
Sometimes replaces , , or , as a
trope (linguistics), trope for giving words a hard-edged or whimsical feel. Examples include the ''
Mortal Kombat
''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The development of the first game was originally based on an idea that Ed Boon and John Tobias had of making a v ...
'' franchise and product names such as
Kool-Aid
Kool-Aid is an American brand of flavored drink mix owned by Kraft Heinz based in Chicago, Illinois. The powder form was created by Edwin Perkins in 1927 based upon a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack.
History
Kool-Aid was invented by ...
and
Nesquik
Nesquik is a brand of food products made by Swiss company Nestlé. In 1948, Nestlé launched a drink mix for chocolate-flavored milk called Nestlé Quik in the United States; this was released in Europe during the 1950s as ''Nesquik''.
Since 1 ...
. More intensely, this use of has also been used to give extremist or racist connotations. Examples include ''
Amerika'' or ''
Amerikkka'' (where the is reminiscent of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and the totalitarian
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
regime and the racist
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
, respectively).
Other languages
Most modern
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
make the hard/soft distinction with ,
except a few that have undergone spelling reforms such as
Ladino
Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to:
* The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible
*Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...
and archaic variants like
Sardinian. Some non-Romance languages like
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
and
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
use in loanwords and also make this distinction. The soft pronunciation, which occurs before , and , is:
# in
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
, and
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
;
# in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
French,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
,
Latin American
Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
,
and in words loaned into Dutch and the
Scandinavian languages
The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...
;
# in
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
and
equatoguinean
Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
;
# in words loaned into German. This is one of the more archaic pronunciations, and was also the pronunciation in
Old Spanish
Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian ( es, castellano antiguo; osp, romance castellano ), or Medieval Spanish ( es, español medieval), was originally a dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken in the former provinces of the Roman Empire that provided ...
,
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
and other historical languages where it is now pronounced . Most languages in eastern and central Europe came to use ''only'' for , and ''only'' for (this would include those
Slavic language
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto ...
s that use Latin script,
Hungarian,
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
, and the
Baltic languages
The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 4.5 million people mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Together with the Slavic lang ...
).
The hard occurs in all other positions and represents in all these aforementioned languages, including in the case of ⟨c⟩ that comes before the Romanian letter î, which is different from i.
In Italian
and Romanian, the orthographic convention for representing before front vowels is to add (Italian ''chiaro'', 'clear'). is used to accomplish the same purpose in Catalan,
Portuguese,
Spanish,
and French. Rarely, the use of unusual suffixed forms to create
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
s occurs. For example, the words ''saco'' and ''taco'' are both standard words but adding ''-es'' or ''-ez'' (both productive affixes in Spanish) would create spellings that seem to indicate soft pronunciations. ( and ''tacez''). Potential remedies include altering the spelling to and ''taquez'', though no standard conventions exist.
In French,
Catalan,
Portuguese,
and
Old Spanish
Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian ( es, castellano antiguo; osp, romance castellano ), or Medieval Spanish ( es, español medieval), was originally a dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken in the former provinces of the Roman Empire that provided ...
a
cedilla
A cedilla ( ; from Spanish) or cedille (from French , ) is a hook or tail ( ¸ ) added under certain letters as a diacritical mark to modify their pronunciation. In Catalan, French, and Portuguese (called cedilha) it is used only under the ' ...
is used to indicate a soft pronunciation when it would otherwise seem to be hard. (French ''garçon'' , 'boy'; Portuguese ''coração'' , 'heart'; Catalan ''caçar'' , 'to hunt'). Spanish is similar, though is used instead of (e.g. ''corazón'' , 'heart').
However, this is essentially equivalent because despite common misconception the symbol is actually derived from a
Visigothic script, Visigothic Z.
In the
orthographies of Irish and
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
, most consonants including have a "broad" (
velarized
Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of four d ...
) vs "slender" distinction (
palatalized) for many of its other consonants generally based on whether the nearest vowel is or , respectively. In Irish, ⟨c⟩ usually represents a hard , but represents before e or i, or after i. In Scottish Gaelic, broad is one of /kʰ ʰk ʰk k/, and slender is one of /kʰʲ ʰkʲ ʰkʲ kʲ/, depending on the phonetic environment.
A number of orthographies do not make a hard/soft distinction. The is always hard in
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
but is always soft in
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
,
Hungarian, and in
Hanyu Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
transcription system of
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
, where it represents and in
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
and many of the transcriptions of the
languages of India
Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...
such as
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, where it always represents . See also
C ''§'' Other languages.
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
has a similar phenomenon with hard and soft : this results from a similar historical palatalization development. Soft is typically a
palatal
The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
or an
alveolo-palatal
In phonetics, alveolo-palatal (or alveopalatal) consonants, sometimes synonymous with pre-palatal consonants, are intermediate in articulation between the coronal and dorsal consonants, or which have simultaneous alveolar and palatal artic ...
, and occurs before not only , and , but also , , and . Another similar system with hard and soft is found in
Faroese with the hard being and the soft being , and
Turkish where the soft is .
The
Vietnamese alphabet
The Vietnamese alphabet ( vi, chữ Quốc ngữ, lit=script of the National language) is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally develo ...
, while based on European orthographies, does not have a hard or a soft per se. The letter , outside of the digraph , always represents a hard /k/ sound. However, it never occurs in "soft positions", i.e. before , where is used instead, while never occurs elsewhere except in the
digraph and a few
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s.
Hồ Chí Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), ('Father of the Nation, Old father of the people') and by other Pseudonym, aliases, was a Vietnamese people, Vietnam ...
had proposed a simplified spelling, as shown in the title of one of his books, 'Đường kách mệnh'.
Old Bohemian has hard c, but pronounce was
Schecowitz, Tocowitz, Crudim
See also
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C
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English orthography
English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and p ...
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I before E except after C
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Hard and soft G
In the Latin-based orthographies of many European languages, the letter is used in different contexts to represent two distinct phonemes that in English are called hard and soft . The sound of a hard (which often precedes the non-front vowel ...
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:C - Hard And Soft
Consonants
Spelling
English orthography