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Does Latin allow the letter 'k' in suffixed words?

Actually, I'm explaining a phenomenon in which English spelling changes...

Consider the following examples:

Likeable, shakeable, makeable - these words are of Germanic origin. They do allow 'k' in words that are suffixed.

Now,

  • Revoke + able -> revocable but not revokeable/revokable.
  • Invoke + able -> invocable but not invokeable/invokable.
  • Provoke + able -> provocable but not provokeable/provokable.

They're from Latin revocare, invocare, provocare respectively.

It has to do with their etymologies. They're of Latin origin.

My question is: Does Latin allow the letter k in suffixed words?

Or what's the reason for this? They allow 'c' in the suffixed words but don't allow 'k'. Why?

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Does Latin allow the letter k in suffixed words?

It doesn't, because Latin doesn't allow the letter K at all. Well, almost; there are a couple of words with K and they mostly have spelling variants with C. In particular, the words you mention are never spelled with a K in Latin.

I have never seen K within a Latin word, only at the beginning. (Perhaps there could be prefixes.) The only two verbs with K are kalare and kalumniari, but they are both also spelled with C and are very rare anyway.

It seems the Latin C has turned into a K in some English words, but that change did not happen within Latin. I don't know whether it was English or an intermediate language. Perhaps English doesn't want C before E when it's pronounced as a K? Follow-up questions in this direction are a better fit to the English sites or perhaps Linguistics.

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    Thank you, Joonas, for your quick response. I don't know whether it was English or an intermediate language. Perhaps English doesn't want C before E when it's pronounced as a K? -> Yes, the letter 'c' gives /s/ sound when it comes before e, i and y. On the other hand, 'c' gives /k/ sound when it comes before a, o and u. The spelling changed to 'k' in order to maintain the /k/ sound (which was original sound of the word in Latin). Commented May 18, 2020 at 11:06
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    @DecapitatedSoul I'm glad to be able to help! That's what I expected. Commented May 18, 2020 at 11:20

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