| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: What is the use of a "K"? |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 11
|
|
| Author |
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
knob, knock, knee - it is silent!
crack, keep, key, it could be replaced with a c.....or even quay! So what is the use of it? Can someone come up with something that needs a "K"?  |
||
|
|
deltavee
Ace Cruncher Texas Hill Country Joined: Nov 17, 2004 Post Count: 4894 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
knob, knock, knee - it is silent! crack, keep, key, it could be replaced with a c.....or even quay! So what is the use of it? Can someone come up with something that needs a "K"? K is the standard notation for a strikeout in baseball.  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/...igns_hanging_at_nats.html [Edit 1 times, last edit by deltavee at Apr 25, 2014 1:30:25 PM] |
||
|
|
enels
Senior Cruncher Joined: Apr 25, 2008 Post Count: 286 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
The most popular word in the world is 'ok'.
|
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
OK is not a word it is an abbreviation. Okay is the word and ocay is just as good
 |
||
|
|
jonnieb-uk
Ace Cruncher England Joined: Nov 30, 2011 Post Count: 6105 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Kite; Kick?
----------------------------------------crack, keep, key, it could be replaced with a c.....or even quay I don't see replacing one letter with two catching on! |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Permission to poke a little, it's maybe only yorkshiremen that can't be told, but 'now' as in this moment in time is most pronouncedly different of 'know', being braincells having stored that spelling fact. Of course there are nob-heads, which i'd never spell with the k in front, as else i'd be living in kensington and not in driffield.
|
||
|
|
OldChap
Veteran Cruncher UK Joined: Jun 5, 2009 Post Count: 978 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
"C" is often used as a soft "s" as in cent. You could say that a "K" is used to emphasise the pronunciation. Us old knackers that live south of Watford still use the K though.
----------------------------------------No simple rules in the English language though.... A is for apple B is for ball.... P is for psychologist  |
||
|
|
Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7854 Status: Recently Active Project Badges: 
|
This place would not be the same without a K.
---------------------------------------- Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
This is what I found;
The origins of silent K are difficult to pin down. What we do know is that the k wasn’t always silent, especially in words of Germanic origin. Just as it is in German, the k was actually pronounced and many of the words which now have silent k originally began with that distinctive clicking sound. My high school teacher made a point of this when teaching us Chaucer. However, some time after the Chaucerian era, the k sound disappeared from the kn combination. There is speculation that it suddenly became hard to pronounce, and was just one of many linguistic changes after the Great Vowel Shift. |
||
|
|
twilyth
Master Cruncher US Joined: Mar 30, 2007 Post Count: 2130 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Thank BobF - that was pretty interesting.
----------------------------------------Do you happen to know if gh sounds were pronounced as gutturals - like in "though?" For example trough is still pronounced trawf - which I'm guessing is supposed to emulate a guttural. Thanks.   |
||
|
|
|