K The eleventh letter in the Phoenician alphabet and in its descendant Greek, the tenth in Latin owing to the omission of Teth (see I), and once more the eleventh in the alphabets of Western Europe owing to the insertion of J. In its long history the shape of K has changed very little. It is on the inscription of the Moabite Stone (early 9th cent. B.C.) in the form (written from right to left) of [symbol] and [symbol]. Similar forms are also found in early Aramaic, but another form [symbol] or [symbol], which is found in the Phoenician of Cyprus in the 9th or 10th century B.C. has had more effect upon the later development of the Semitic forms. The length of the two back strokes and the manner in which they join the upright are the only variations in Greek. In various places the back strokes, treated as an angle <, become more rounded (, so that the letter appears as K, a form which in Latin probably affected the development of C (q.v.). In Crete it is elaborated into [symbol] and [symbol]. In Latin K, which is found in the earliest inscriptions, was soon replaced by C, and survived only in the abbreviations for _Kalendae_ and the proper name _Kaeso_. The original name Kaph became in Greek _Kappa_. The sound of K throughout has been that of the unvoiced guttural, varying to some extent in its pronunciation according to the nature of the vowel sound which followed it. In Anglo-Saxon C replaced K through Latin influence, writing being almost entirely in the hands of ecclesiastics. As the sound-changes have been discussed under C it is necessary here only to refer to the palatalization of K followed earlier by a final _e_ as in _watch_ (Middle English _wacche_, Anglo-Saxon _waecce_) by the side of _wake_ (M.E. _waken_, A.-S. _wacan_); batch, bake, &c. Sometimes an older form of the substantive survives, as in the Elizabethan and Northern _make_ = _mate_ alongside _match_. (P. Gi.) K2, or MT GODWIN-AUSTEN, the second highest mountain in the world, ranking after Mt Everest. It is a peak of the Karakoram extension of the Muztagh range dividing Kashmir from Chinese Turkestan. The height of K2 as at present determined by triangulation is 28,250 ft., but it is possible that an ultimate revision of the values of refraction at high altitudes may have the effect of lowering the height of K2, while it would elevate those of Everest and Kinchinjunga. The latter mountain would then rank second, and K2 third, in the scale of altitude, Everest always maintaining its ascendancy. K2 was ascended for the first time by the duke of the Abruzzi in June 1909, being the highest elevation on the earth's surface ever reached by man. KA'BA, KAABA, or KAABEH, the sacred shrine of Mahommedanism, containing the "black stone," in the middle of the great mosque at Mecca (q.v.).