Hi Kiyo,

I think the third choice is right: <c> before front vowels in
foreign names = [ts]. In the First Grammatical Treatise (12th
century) we find, "sá stafr, er hér er ritinn 'c', er Latínumenn
flestir kalla 'ce' ok hafa fyr tvá stafi: 't' ok 's', þá er þeir
stafa hafa við 'e' eða 'i'..." -- "The letter here written c, which
most Latin writers call 'ce', and use for two letters, 't' and 's',
when they join it with 'e' or 'i'..." (text and translation, Einar
Haugen, "The First Grammatical Treatise", Longman, London 1950,
section 88, pps. 24-25). This pronunciation of 'c' as [ts] before
<e> or <i> "was common in France in the 12th century" (Einar Haugen,
5.5, p. 75; he cites a number of historical French grammars).

This pronunciation originally appeared in Latin in the northern and
western parts of the Roman Empire (France and Spain), while [tS],
i.e. the 'ch' sound in English "church", prevailed in much of the
south and east (Italy and Romania) (WD Elcock, "The Romance
Languages", Faber & Faber, London 1960, p. 53). The French
pronunciation was adopted in German, where it still survives in
names and Latin borrowings, and probably in Old English too. In
late OE manuscripts, the spelling <c> for [ts] before front vowels
is even found in some native words such as 'milce' (oblique case
of 'milts' "kindness, mildness, mercy") (A Campbell, Old English
Grammar, Oxford 1959, section 53). Occasionally Old English also
used the Latin letter <z> for [ts], e.g. <bezt> for 'betst', just as
in Old Norse. The Norse writing system was based originally on
English scribal practice, and the anonymous author of the First
Grammatical Treatise was inspired by the English adaptation of the
Latin alphabet (Einar Haugen, 5.4, p. 74).

Stefán Karlsson writes: "The recommendation of the First Grammatical
Treatise that 'k' should be represented only be 'c' was not
followed. The earliest evidence suggests that a fair number of
scribes observed the custom of writing 'k' before front vowels
and 'c' elsewhere. The reason for this was probably not that 'k'
was regarded as a special symbol for palatal 'k', but rather the
fact that before front vowels, 'c' no longer represented a 'k' sound
in contemporary Latin pronunciation." (Stefán Karlsson, "The
Icelandic Language", translated by Rory McTurk, The Viking Society
for Northern Research, London 2004).

Finally, in the Computus Runicus [ http://www.arild-
hauge.com/computus_runicus.htm ], a Runic Calender from 14th century
Gotland, copied by the 17th century scholar Ole Worm, the same runic
letter is used for the <c> in 'Marcellinus' (see p. 2, the line
immediately above the cartwheel shape) and 'Marcius' "[the month of]
March" (p. 4, top) as for the <z> in 'guz' (='guðs', "of God"; see
p. 16, middle of line 7, guz byrþ "God´s birth"). This assimilation
of a dental consonant with 's' is often spelt <z> in early Icelandic
too, whether the dental was a fricative, as here, or a stop, as in
<vaz> = 'vatns' "of water". In either case, <z> is, I think,
assumed to have stood for [ts], as in northwest European Latin at
that time.

Curiouly though, the First Grammarian says the Latin 'z' was
composed of 'd' and 's'. But he may be referring here, to some
extent, to the shape of the letter, which he explains consists of
the Hebrew DALETH + SADE. He wanted to dispense with it in Norse as
unnecessary: Honum vísa ek heldr ór várum máli ok stafrófi, því at
þó verða fyr nauðsynja sakir fleiri stafir í þar, en elligar vilda
ek hafa. Vil ek heldr ríta, þeim inum fám sinnum er þarf, 'd'
ok 's', alls hann er ofalt í váru máli af 'd' samansett ok 's', en
ekki af [ 'þ' ] ok 's'. "I prefer to reject it in our language and
alphabet, since there are of necessity more letters in it already
than I really care to have. I would rather write 'd' and 's' on the
few occasions when it is needed, since it is always comounded of 'd'
and 's' in our language and never 'þ' and 's'." (text & translation
Einar Haugen, section 89, pps. 28-29).

Llama Nom