C

• The third letter in the latin alphabet.
• The programming language C.
• A vitamin.

---

The third letter in the Roman alphabet. In the Etruscan language there were no voiced plosive?s, so they took over Greek Γ (Gamma) to write their /k/. In the beginning, the Romans used C for both /k/ and /g/. Perhaps at an even earlier time, it was /g/ only, while using K for /k/?

Some scholars claim that the Semitic ג (gîmel) was the picture of a camel. /k/ developed palatal? and velar? allophones in Latin, probably due to Etruscan influence. Therefore, C has many different sound values today, among them /k/ and /s/ in French, /k/ and /T/ (like English TH in THIN) in European Castilian?, /k/ and /tS/ (like English CH) in Italian and so on.

See G.

---

The programming language C: see C programming language.