Don Osborn wrote:

>
> A discussion on the Unicode list may be more appropriate here
> (appended below in chrono order). It ends up asking about the
> history of the letter K. One might equally well ask the history of C
> as it can stand for a number of different sounds in different
> languages or positions (s, k, ch, ts).
>
> Don Osborn
> Bisharat.net
>
> 1. Patrick Andries noted:
> > Concerning CJK read somewhere Korea wanted to be named Corea in
> English.

Since no one anywhere in the world has any sort of authority over
English, they can't do anything by law. All they can do is make their
preference known, and maybe news organizations and publishers and State
Departments (Foreign Affairs Ministries) will consider complying. Cf.
Myanmar, Beijing.

> 2. I (Don Osborn) reacted:
> Although I admit to not quite understanding the motivation for this
> suggestion, it seems first of all like a step backward to replace a K
> with a C from a worldwide point of view - c has many different
> pronunciations in different languages and positions; k is pretty
> constant (so "Korea" from English can be very easily taken in similar
> form in other languages whereas "Corea" would not). And besides, the
> version with a c in English calls to mind chorea, which is not a
> fortuitous resemblance.

The pianist Chick Corea seems to have done it on purpose ...

> 3. Patrick replied:
>
> > Although I admit to not quite understanding the motivation for this
> > suggestion,
>
> Request by 22 MPs that want to modify the English spelling by law.
>
> Because according to the articles this was the original English
> spelling before the occupying Japanese authorities changed the
> initial C by a K so that Korea would follow Japan in alphabetical
> order.
>
> Apparently Nord and South Corea(s) want to participate in the 2004
> Olympic Games under the letter C (» Sie geht so weit, dass die beiden
> Länder bei den Olympischen Spielen 2004 gemeinsam mit dem C im Namen
> antreten wollen. Überhaupt soll das Weltsportfest der eigentliche
> Grund für die koloniale Buchstabensuppe sein. «)

The countries march in the alphabetical order of the host country. (I
treasured a New York Times photo from the Seoul Olympics of all those
placards of country names in Korean alphabetical order.) I can't imagine
that Korea is spelled with anything but Kappa in Greek, so what's the
point supposed to be?

Come to think of it, Greece always comes first and the host country
always comes last. Perhaps the opening parade will be an endless loop!
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...