Archaic Latin Alphabet

The letter "C" was the western form of the Greek gamma, but it was used for the sounds /g/ and /k/ alike, possibly under the influence of Etruscan, which might have lacked any voiced plosives. Later, probably during the 3rd century BC, the letter "Z" - unneeded to write Latin properly - was replaced with the new letter "G," a "C" modified with a small vertical stroke, which took its place in the alphabet. From then on, "G" represented the voiced plosive /g/, while "C" was generally reserved for the voiceless plosive /k/. The letter "K" was used only rarely, in a small number of words such as Kalendae, often interchangeably with "C."