I've studied the Hebrew language and even I noticed a pattern between old
Hebrew (vel Phoenician) and the Greek alphabet. [cf. Homeric Greek (Clyde
Pharr) - Section 501 and corresponding footnotes] Notice how 'K' is almost
always an initial letter and then only before 'A'. (F. Wheelock)
'C' comes from 'gamma' when it looked something like this '>' and during
an
age when it was common to see ox writing (David Crystal - Encyclopedia of
Language) it appeared a lot like this '<'. 'G' was added later to make a
distinction between the voiced /g/ and the voiceless /c/ sounds of Latin.
I believe 'K' may have been used in words that have derived from some
proto-Latin language (e.g. Etruscan or Oscan) and especially a few
borrowed
from Greek when it somehow showed up, albeit rarely, in the middle of a
word.
It doesn't help our research that many of the scribes often exchanged the
letters 'C' and 'K' where they thought it might have been applicable.
(i.e.
Kalendas, Karthago, Kaeso). At least 'Kalendas' and 'Calendas' mean the
same
thing in Latin. In German, it's also acceptable to interchange 'C' and 'K'
in words like 'Code, Kode' and 'Cord, Kord'. We don't have this luxury in
English. Consider the following words: 'clan' is a symbol of heritage and
'klan' is a symbol of biggotry. 'Catsup' and 'Ketchup' don't quite cut
this
idea of interchange though. ;)
-H.
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