What's the point of the letter 'K'?

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What's the point of the letter 'K'?

...so I was in the pub the other night blathering to a mate and somehow (I blame it all on ABCtales) we got onto the topic of language. We couldn't understand why the letter K exists.

Examples

Bank
...could be spelled banc and everyone would understand it
Ditto blank, tank, think and lots of other words

knight
...would still sound the same without the letter 'K'
Ditto knave, knit, know and lots of other words

Cake (which we thought provided the reason for its existence but no...)
Could be spelled cayc. Ditto bake, lake etc ad nauseum

Can anyone justify why the letter 'K' exists in English?

Cheers

Em (expecting someone to slay the argument in a single post but curious anyway)

stormy
Anonymous's picture
how about carl lewis - arguably the greatest american athlete of all time? it's pretty easy to do Andrea. Emily explained it some time ago but I've no idea which thread it is on now. so here is my attempt: I need to change the style of the bracket for the moment or it will not be visible. you take the link, abctales.com for example, and type this around it: (a href=" ") insert what you like here(/a) so for an abctales link it would look like this: (a href="http://www.abctales.com")abctales(/a) but , make sure you use this bracket < > instead of the ones I used in the demo: by using the < bracket the browser recognises the html code and keeps it hidden from view. all you see is the abc link:- abctales lets hope that worked.
Andrea
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Andrea
Anonymous's picture
Hell, what did I do there? Back to the drawing board...
Fecky
Anonymous's picture
Andrea, don't you think freezing assets is too quick a death for anyone in KKK?
stormy
Anonymous's picture
I think you put the wrong quotation mark after the bobdylan url. quite why the message has shrunk in size I don't know!!!!
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
You mean the Bob Dylan thing came up? Blimey (or blimy, as the case may be). Not on my screen, it didn't. Well, that's success of sorts, I suppose. Shrunk like a builders Levis, eh? ps. Depends on what assets you're thinking of freezing, Fecky...I was thinking of those of a more...um...globular nature.
The Times
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stormy
Anonymous's picture
no, it didn't come up. I simply have a very powerful pair of binoculars Andrea. I just changed your ' for a " and it worked. nice curtains.
Andrea
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Oooh, ta, Stor...I mean Times.
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
Gawd, that's spooky - I just bought new ones! Is it coitans for me, I wonder?
stormy
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heh heh. I still can't work out why the messages have shrunk though. probably get told off by emily's minders for messing with html again!
donignacio
Anonymous's picture
I think 'the-letter-K god' (or Kevin Kline) is displease with this discussion of getting rid of his magnificent letter and has cursed this message board by shrinking it. (or not)
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
Oh, and there was me thinking I'd dun it... Strewth.
Emily Dubberley
Anonymous's picture
Not sure quite why this has happened - will ask the techies about it. Probably something to do with not closing off an html tag - but nah, I won't tell you off this time Stormy. It was a very good explanation of how to do hyperlinks.
stormy petetrel
Anonymous's picture
Are you sure it wasn't tonight down the pubeb Miss Dubeb? I know I've read the answer to this somewhere. Can't remember where or what it was though right now. I'll be buback tomomrorw if karl doesn't find it first!
Wolfgirl
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Kinky wouldn't be the same without it.
stormy
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cincy? no, you're right wolfie. what the ku Klux Klan be called I wonder? loses a bit of the menace without the k somehow. almost a cissy lot.
stormy
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just noticed a word missing from the above. phew. beat the eric police. 'would'
Dave Randall
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oh!! i thought you just couldn't get would stormy :-)
stormy
Anonymous's picture
oooh you kow! I'll cill you for that you now; cicc your friccing head in I will. (so long as me nails don't breac) Tace Kare
Emily DUBBERLEY
Anonymous's picture
Nope, I'm sober (ish) Just typing too fast... you're right about cincy Wolfgirl - somehow less fun without the 'k' - but surely k can't exist just for kinky? Cheers Em Think that should be tayc care Stormy ;-)
Eddie
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Kop Kick Kick Off Kevin Keegan Kenny Dalglish Kennedy (Alan) Kennedy (Ray) Kvarme (Bjorn Tore) Kemlyn Road Stand Kiss the badge Kippe (Frode) Keepy Uppy Kecks Kirkby Kit
Liana
Anonymous's picture
K exists to make my life as a misery as I struggle with the Czech language. A fine example of this; KRK - throat. How the bliddy hell am I supposed to pronounce that? Jozef? Do the Slavs do it on purpose?!?!?!
donignacio
Anonymous's picture
I never really cared for the letter 'K' much myself! But without it, nutritionists would have to figure out a new name for Vitamin K. And golly! What would the Kellogg company do? They'd have to be called Cellogg, and that would sound too much like some cellular organ that we all had forgotten from high school. They would also have to change the name of their Special K cereal! Call it something like Special H or something. And what would my state do? Well, I'm getting sick of Kansas, and maybe it would give us something a little more creative to call it, like Hades. I don't know. Now that I think of it, I like the letter K. Why in the last sentence, I used that letter twice (not including when I mentioned it.) Let's keep it around! But I'm still for the name change of Kansas.
Feccy
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And what about me nitting?...sort of changes things a bit, don't it?
Roy
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I suppose it's vital in always indicating a hard C/K sound (eg spike), whereas C is frequently used in its soft (S) pronunciation (eg spice), except when combined with K, which always hardens the sound. If kick became cic, for instance, it might be pronounced one of four ways - kick, kiss, sick or siss. Maybe it's less confusing as it is. Is there anyone who can give an example of K making a soft C sound?
andrew pack
Anonymous's picture
Emily - KNOW and NOW. I can't see any sensible way to write Know without a K. Replacing it with a C would make it sound like Cnow and a G (as in Gnaw) would just be mad. I once wrote a piece advocating the abolition of the letter X. CKS or Z substitutes for every real use of it (other than X-Rays) in fact, most words beginning with X are pronounced with a Z. Might take longer to type, but modern typewriters are laid out to slow down the typist (the early ones couldn't cope with typing speeds and were reconfigured to make things slower. ) Have you ever read GBS's account of how you can spell FISH as GHOTI ? F as in enouGH I as in wOmen and SH as in emoTIon
muzzy
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OOOOH I can't be doing with all this I'm off down to the CFC to get some food.
Stephen Gardiner
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French Connection would be fucced trying to do their trendy four-lettered brand name
Wolfgirl
Anonymous's picture
In lieu of Eric, I must point out to Stormy that's it's the KLU Klux Klan. Or is it? My membership must have lapsed; singed my pretty frock on that burning cross. I think K for Kinky is all you need. Along with Kind, Kids and Karma.
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
Kind, Kids, Karma is spot on, Wolfie but, according to me, Ku is korrekt. Cudos pour moi?
Wolfgirl
Anonymous's picture
Darn. my nowledge is more limited than I feared. By the way, how would you spell that diminitive, sexy aussie singer? -ylie?
Andrea
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Chilly?
Liana
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Floppy?
jason donovan
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more successful....
Liana
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Than you, definitely :o)
mississippi
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Cellog's Special C ?
mississippi
Anonymous's picture
or even 2 'g's
Fecy
Anonymous's picture
What about the reverse - do away with 'C'... replace it in all words where it's soft with an 'S' an where it's hard with a 'K' ie. The Sisko Kid... Second thought: Do away with 'H'... Ere in Brum, we aven't used it at the beginning of a word for centuries. Third thought: I'm going back to skool... (Remember (was it in the sixties?)when they brought in that method of teaching kids how to spell and it didn't work?) Fort fort: Do you fink we can do away with 'th'?...replace it with a single 't' of an 'f'? (Better get back to me nittin' before I fink of anymore silliness.)
Karl Wiggins
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Andrea, Your friend with the son called Barley, has he got any brothers called Wheat and Hops? On a cruise we once took, there was a little girl called Blue Rose. She was a monster!
stormy
Anonymous's picture
it's ok wolfie. you inspired me to do a search. I found this rather scary site. kukluxklan it's pretty laughable actually. listen to the crap music they play while you visit the souvenir shop to buy your white knights mug and key ring. I would have ordered a white clowns hat and sheet but they don't appear to stock any. god bless america and all that sail in her.
robert
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it's a fab site, stormy! never mind the lack of clown hats, what about the Klan Kids Kare junior size t-shirts? and the Email the Klan button is irresistible...
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
Oooh, Stormy, how'd you get the link to work on a posting? Sometimes when people put (unclickable) links up, I get in such a horrendous muddle that I give up before I've found the site... Your way's sooo much easier (for dipsticks like me, anyway). Klan site was absolutely revolting - maybe THEIR assets shoud be frozen (if they have any).
kfish
Anonymous's picture
feccy that spelling system in the sixties was called ITA ... caused me no end of problems as i was already reading and writing a bit before i went to skool and then had to learn it all over again ... until we all went back to what we knew in the first place ... i still loathe ITA ... and speaking of the letter K ... what would happen to one of my favourites mark k. ??? ... he would just look silly as mark.c. ...
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
Was a daughter, Karl. Had two, Bonny was the other one. Er...d'you mean did the friend have bro's, or the daughter? Either way, no, they didn't, either of 'em
Karl Wiggins
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Where would I be without the letter K? I'd have to spell my name with a C as in Carl. I've never heard of such a name.
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
Well, I'd never heard of 'Lotus' or 'River' 'Rain' or 'Sky, either, but some parents saw fit to bless their offspring with it... You could start a trend. I have heard of Carl with a 'c' by the way, if it's any comfort. Friend of mine has a kid called Barley, though. Think it's rather nice.
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