Welcome to the History of English podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is episode 185. Spelling says a lot, part two. This time we're going to continue our look at the pronunciation of English in the early

1600s, as English was starting to become a global language.

And like last time, we'll also continue to focus on the way words are spelled,

since spelling was becoming standardized around this time,

and English spelling often reflects

the way words were pronounced in earlier centuries. So by looking at the way words are spelled,

we can trace how pronunciations changed over time. And whereas last time we looked at letters

A through J, this time we'll complete the alphabet and look at K through Z or Z. But before we begin,

let me remind you that the website for the podcast is History of Englishpodcast.com, and you can sign up

to support the podcast and get bonus episodes at patreon.com slash history of English. Now, let's continue with our look at the alphabet and the way

it was applied to the sounds of English in the early 1600s. And let's pick up with letter K.

Believe it or not, the letter K was rarely used in English before the 1200s. During the Old English period,

scribes generally used the letter C for the C sound, and of course the letter C is still used

for that sound today. But during the Middle English period, the letter K became more common in

English writing. Since its adoption, it's represented

the k sound and hasn't really changed within English, so there isn't a lot to say about the overall

history of the letter K in English. The main comment to make about this letter is that it's

become more common over time, and today it's used to spell many old English words

that were once spelled with a C, like King, which was originally spelled C-Y-N-I-N-G, and Kiss, which was

originally spelled C-Y-S-S-A-N. The use of that letter C created a problem in Middle English because the letter C had acquired its

soft S sound in addition to its hard K sound.

...