I've heard "K" used as well... but only a couple of times, while in North Carolina.

I've only recently heard of the "K" thing, and I am born and raised in TX. We typically (at least where I pledged) used the following designations:

Alpha Kappa Alpha-AKA
Delta Sigma Theta-Delta or DST
Zeta Phi Beta-Zeta
Sigma Gamma Rho-SGRho (though we didn't have any while I was in school)


Alpha Phi Alpha-Alpha
Kappa Alpha Psi-Kappa (they tend to use the word NUPE amongst themselves)
Omega Psi Phi-Omegas
Phi Beta Sigma-Sigmas
Iota Phi Theta-Iotas

I have never heard of 'K' as a reference to a member of my sorority.

I do hear AKA pronounced as a word rather than letters. I guess spelled out phonetically it would be 'akka' or 'acka'. (kind of like cracker without the 'r'--> cracka)