letters k and q

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by mathman, Apr 14, 2020.

  1. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    Why do we have these two letters in the alphabet, which sound the same? How did it develop (starting from ancient Phoenician)?
     
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  3. arfa brane call me arf Valued Senior Member

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    What we have is the "k" sound and the "kw" sound; for some reason the language needs it.
     
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  5. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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  7. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    Existence of K and Q is explained, but why are they there? k was kept only for some words and q was used in qu. Note that transcriptions from Arabic (Iraq) use q without a u. Did Semitic alphabets have predecessors for both?
     

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