English spelling origin (OT?)

[sagehen]

 James E. Clapp writes:
>....... there are principles of sound-spelling
>correspondence that are pretty consistent.  The principle here is:
>When a word ends with a "k" sound after a "short" vowel, it is
>usually spelled "-ck".  This isn't something special about the word
>"quick"; it's a general rule you can use to spell lots and lots of
>words--even if you've never seen them before.  "Back" and "tack" and
>"neck" and "peck" and "lick" and "stick" and "lock" and "sock" and
>"luck" and "duck"--if you know the rule, you can write them all.
~~~~~~~~~
Um, well there are all those words  with the adjectival suffix /-ic/as well
as "magic" & "logic," &c. They may have had a / k/ in the eighteenth
century, but no longer.
AM