Cedilla - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

History

The cedilla is small a Z ; in French, one could name it zédille . The current C-W communication is resulting from the Gothic script medieval (). The use of the Gothic sign is due to the limitations of the Latin alphabet. The name comes from Spanish and appears at the 17th century, it means small Z .

The Phonème /ts/ of the Romance Langues is resulting from the C /k/ Latin palatalized then assibilé. In front of the vowels which would have brought to a pronunciation “lasts” (/k/ in front of has , O and U ) one noted the phoneme in various manners: that is to say simply C , this or cz ( E and Z is used then as diacritic Lettres). ceo must then decide /tso/. This notation is used in Cantilène of holy Eulalie - 9th century.

The wisigothic writing shortens this C-W communication about the 11th century, in Spain. By superscribing initially the C with Z in its form then, in an opposite movement, while returning to the C its full size while was reduced to a subscribed sign. Thus, the Spanish word /lantsa/, “lance”, it came from there to be written launched . The utility of such a sign as well as a first will of systematization of the notation of /ts/ allowed the possible extension (according to the copyists) of the cedilla in front of the vowels I and E ( çinco , “five”). This process is then regarded as a form of Hypercorrection since the letter C only is enough (“five” and “five” decide in the same way).

The handwritten use is taken again in Imprimerie, first of all by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, then imitated by the French printer Geoffroy Tory (work Champ fleury in 1529, privilege dated from the September 5th 1526). The cedilla is then used to note /s/ and not /ts/, the phoneme was simplified in French with 13th and Castillan between 14th and 16th). In French it is not preserved that in front of the vowels has , O and U . Tory is justified in the edition that it gives Adolescence Clementine (Clément Marot, 1533):

“auec some accens note, soubz C when it holds of the pronunciation of the S , which does not have este faict made with the langaige françoys, how much that it that it there fust and soyt very necessary”

Before him, holding them of a Orthographe étymologisante write francoys . The uses remain at the beginning fluctuating: in the edition of the poetic Works of Louise Labé (Jean de Tournes, 1556), one can read, in the first “Elegy” (orthography and typography of time, with '' S '' long):

IE seen that ſoudein to me took,

the meſme badly that IE ſoulois to begin again:

Which me perſa of such a fury,

That still in ſuis after length tems cured:

The cedilla present in is seen ( seen in the current orthography) but goes away in perſa ( bored ), that one even wrote with a S to avoid bored . From there, the use of the “ C with tail” (such is its first name) is spread in France. But it is at the 17th century that its use becomes really current.

In Spanish, his use is abandoned at the 18th century ( C being replaced by Z or C simple in front of E and I ) whereas /ts/ was simplified in /s/ between 14th and the 16th century then in/θ/with 18th. The other close languages (Catalan, French, Portuguese) preserve it nevertheless.

The introduction (then the maintenance) of such a character into the writing of French is an effective and consensual manner definitively to regulate the problem of the ambiguous pronunciation of the C Latin. Indeed, if it precedes a has , a O or a U it is marked /k/; if it precedes another vowel it /s/ is marked. Thus, the sign makes it possible to avoid giving up the bonds with the past and preserves the graphic coherence of the language while making the writing less ambiguous. The presence of the cedilla in a word or a Form, visible guard the relationship with the étymon and derived or others Form S.

It would have been possible to write the words launched and French with the sign S since the /ts/ phoneme did not exist any more at the time of the loan of the cedilla. The phoneme had even merged with other /s/. But it is the visual aspect and étymologisant word which was essential. The writing *lansa would have introduced an awkward alternation: *il lansa ~ they launched . In other languages, like Spanish, the writing of a conjugated verb can be incoherent: one writes lanzar now while “cutting” of the Latin etymology lanceare , which lançar revealed more explicitly (but one finds it during alternation with lance with the subjunctive present).

In addition to the maintenance of a visual etymological coherence, the cedilla also allows, in certain cases, to regulate problems of writing of its /s/ resulting from /k/. For example, received , guard a bond with to receive , but, especially, could not be written in another manner: *resu would be read /r əzy/and *ressu /resy/. In the same way for lesson and other words in which a '' E '' null and void is followed /s/ phoneme.

For other aspects of the question, to also consult Cedilla in French .

Used like diacritic detached of sound C , the cedilla was extended to other letters as from the 19th century.

E marked with a cedilla paleographic ( E caudata )

One finds a kind of cedilla under the E in the medieval Manuscrit S, use attested as of the 6th century in Onciale. The letter obtained is known as E caudata (“E equipped with a tail”). It more or less frequently replaces the Latin Digramme ae (often written æ by binding, habit which extended thereafter) being used to generally note open (with the long departure, until the oppositions of vocalic Quantité do not have any more course) resulting from the old Latin diphthong (monophtonguée starting from IIe century before the Christian era). The use continued, in the manuscripts, until the 18th century but did not survive the Imprimerie.

It is notable that this letter, that one can represent here by ę (with a Ogonek) or ȩ (with a cedilla), was preserved in the Transcription of the novelists whereas it is the digraph ae (in the dependant æ and named form Ash ) which was it in the Transcription of the Germanic languages (knowing that ę was also used in the manuscripts of the Vieil English as an uncial Irish islander).

Although one names this sign cedilla , it is an anachronism: it does not have any bond with a Z and it seems rather than it comes from a has subscribed.

Cf Diacritic Paleography and of the Latin alphabet .

Current uses

In French, Catalan and Portuguese

In Albanian

DC.

One uses, in the current orthography of the Albanian, the letter C to note.

In Turkish

DC, Şş.

The two letters are used in the orthography of the Turkish since the adopted romanisation on November 1st 1928. They are regarded as distinct letters, classified respectively after C and S and not like alternatives of these last. It is possible that the use of C for is inspired by the uses of Albanian while ş imitates the Rumanian use.

In Rumanian

Șș (Şş), Țț (Ţţ).

The current orthography of the Rumanian , Latin and strongly inspired by those of Italian and French, goes back to the 19th century and its last notable reform goes back to 1953. One normally employs there two diacritées letters of a subscribed Virgule.

The standards ISO 8859-2 and Unicode (inter alia) having with the departure considered that the subscribed comma was only one graphic alternative of the cedilla, it is the use of S marked with a cedilla which was essential in data processing, more especially as there exists in Turkish (what made it possible to create only a Character set ISO for these two languages). The T marked with a cedilla, however, generally remained represented like a T with subscribed comma, for mainly esthetic reasons: in fact, the current police forces are generally equipped with a S with cedilla and with a T with cedilla traced like a comma.

Unicode distinguishes the two characters now, as one can see it opposite, but the named characters “Latin letter S subscribed comma” (U+0218 for the capital and U+0219 for the tiny ) and “Latin letter T subscribed comma” (U+021A and U+021B) are seldom posted correctly, “Latin letter S cedilla” (U+015E, U+015F) and “Latin letter T cedilla” (U+0162, U+0163) being imposed (with the graphic inconsistency of the T which one higher announced in the majority of the police forces). The forms with comma remain preferred in a neat typography.

The two letters with comma (or cedilla) subscribed are considered, for the Alphabetical classification, like distinct letters, classified after S and T .

In Latvian

ģĢ, ķĶ, ļĻ, ņŅ, ŗŖ

The Latvian uses the cedilla in the form of “comma subscribed” to note the Palatalisation consonants /g/, /k/, /l/, /n/ and /r/, which one writes in this case ģ , ķ , ļ , ņ and ŗ . Note that this cedilla is placed above the G lower-case for reasons of legibility and that it can then take several forms, of which that of a simple Guillemet curve, of a Virgule reversed, of a Acute accent, etc For the capital G where the problem of legibility does not arise, one leaves the cedilla to the lower part: Ģ .

The pronunciation of the R and that of the ŗ being distinguished more in the standard Latvian, this last letter was removed orthography lasting the years of Soviet occupation. This spelling reform was generally not accepted by the exiled Latvians. With the new independence of Latvia in 1991, the ŗ was however not restored in the official orthography.

In marshallais

ļĻ, m̧, ņŅ, o̧

The Marshallais (Austronesian Language spoken in the Marshall Islands) is written with a Latin alphabet including/understanding of the letters with cedilla at the very least surprising, L , m N and O , are ļ , , ņ and . Of these letters, only the L and N exist as characters precomposed for Unicode (in its version 4). The others must be made up by means of the diacritic cedilla without U+0327 hunting. One will take guard not to code the O cedilla by a O Ogonek, .

According to an accessible fundamental grammar in line, which remains not very precise as for the phonetic value of the letters with cedilla, ļ would correspond to, with (/m/ labialized), ņ with (/n/ rétroflexe and with a kind of /o ː/(/o/ long). This information is however not confirmed by an article devoted to with the phonology of this language, which does not mention the current orthography: for example, no nasal Consonne bilabial labialized is listed, no rétroflexe either that a vocalic Quantité relevant for the vowels.

Phonetic transcription

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, represents the deaf palatal fricative Consonne.

Transcription in ASCII and ISO 646

The ASCII basic (American version of the standard ISO 646 coding the characters from 0 to 127) does not contain a letter with diacritic. At the time where it was often only the Page of code available, some simulated the cedilla while placing a Virgule behind the letter: for example, they wrote “c, a” for “that”.

However, the national alternatives of the ISO 646 use the few noninvariant positions of the ISO 646 to place additional punctuations and diacritées letters there:

Thus the version française (standard NF Z 62010-1982, deposited with the ECMA by AFNOR) of the ISO 646 codes the C cedilla into 124, instead of the character | coded in the American version.
the French version more ancienne (standard NF Z 62010-1973, out-of-date since 1985) of the ISO 646 imposed the use of the control character return postpones (BS, coded 8) for to superimpose the characters and to simulate the addition of diacritic except on the diacritées letters already coded in the national alternative of the ISO 646; thus, the cedilla could be coded < BS; comma > after a C capital.
versions for the espagnol , the Catalan and the Basque (recorded with the ECMA by IBM or Olivetti) of the ISO 646 code the C cedilla capital and lower-case into 93 and 125 respectively, instead of the characters ] and } of the ASCII.
the versions portugaises (recorded with the ECMA by IBM or Olivetti) of the ISO 646 as for it codes the C cedilla capital and lower-case into 92 and 124 respectively, instead of the characters \ and | of the ASCII.
the version italienne (recorded with the ECMA by Olivetti) of the ISO 646 as for it codes the C cedilla lower-case into 92, instead of the character \ of the ASCII.
the versions Frenchwoman, Spanish, Portugueses, allemande (DIN standard 66083), hongroise (standard MSZ 7795/3), norvégienne (standard NS 4551), suédoise (standard SEN 850200 Appendix C), grecque (old standard ELOT of 1984, obsolete since 1986) of the ISO 646 continue to refer to the possible cedilla as representation of the comma (however they do not prescribe anything on the subject about this use via an imposed control character)