K, the German Kurrent letter k

History

The letter K occupies the 11th position in the German alphabet. Phonetically, it represents a voiceless velar plosive /k/, found in thousands of native Germanic roots and family names.

Lowercase k in Kurrent is a highly elaborate letter: it begins with a tall ascender loop, drops down to the baseline, and then forms an intricate looped knot or eyelet in the middle zone with a small upper loop and an outgoing lower leg. Capital K starts with a bold vertical downstroke, followed by an upper diagonal arm and a lower leg that flares out along the baseline.

The letter k appears in fundamental genealogical vocabulary including 'Kind' (child), 'Kirche' (church), 'Kaufmann' (merchant), and 'Knecht' (farmhand). Its tall ascender and middle knot make it one of the most identifiable letters in historical records.

Until the early 1930s many German place and personal names were respelled from C to K, among them Catharina, Cassel, Crefeld and Cöln, so older records can show the same name with either letter.^[1] K is the nineteenth most frequent letter in German text, at about 1.2%.^[2]