[url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/C+cedilla]ce·dil·la n.
A mark ( , ) placed beneath the letter c, as in the spelling of the French word garçon, to indicate that the letter is to be pronounced (s).
[Obsolete Spanish, diminutive of ceda, the letter z (so called because a small z was formerly written after a c, and later below it, to indicate that the normal hard c was to be pronounced as a sibilant, like s or z), from Late Latin zeta][/url]
Funny that I’ve never seen it in a Spanish word, though… only in French.
-Tim
One of the first known writers in Spanish was "Gonçalvo de Berçeo", whose name has derived in "Gonzalo de Berceo". If you pick any Old Spanish book you’ll find dozens of "ces con cedilla".
In the city where I live, founded already by the Iberians but acquiring major importance in the XVI century, the main ancient buildings and places have been labelled after the fashion imperant when they were built. Thus, we have the "Plaça D los S[sup]tos[/sup] Niños", "Palacio Arçobispal", etc.
Regards,
WS.
PD: By the way, Latvian seems to use the cedilla for very different purposes: n, sounds like an "ñ/nh/gn" to me, whereas "l," sounds quite like "ll/lh/gl".
One of the first known writers in Spanish was "Gonçalvo de Berçeo", whose name has derived in "Gonzalo de Berceo". If you pick any Old Spanish book you’ll find dozens of "ces con cedilla".
Of course I’ve seen this in Spanish as well, but I wonder what was the purpose of a cedilla below a c before an e or i, since it already had an s sound. Or am I missing something?
Ogonek? This must mean something like tail-little. In Lithuanian the "reverse cedille" is called "nosin?," meaning nasal. Respective alphabets with the diacritic are called a nosin?, e nosin?, i nosin? and u nosin?. I was trying to find how ogonek or nosin? came to existence but with no avail. Perhaps I have to ask Jonas Jablonskis if he had any idea.
As I always thought Latvian palatalising (?) diacritic to be the comma, I was surprised when I found a puzzling reference in Wikipedia:
Comparatively, some consider the diacritics on the Latvian consonants g, k, l, n, and formerly r to be commas as well. While their Adobe glyph names are commas, they are actually cedillas.
All the material I have about Latvie¨u valoda (mostly in Japanese) shows the diacritic exactly like a comma. Besides, the "cedille" is never attached to the letter. Perhaps this is one of those things in the world "with the common origin but look differently now." In that case I would like to call it by the appellation that Latvians themselves use. Any idea?
Flaminius
PS:
The ? in "nosin?" is acually e with a dot (.) on top.
Of course I’ve seen this in Spanish as well, but I wonder what was the purpose of a cedilla below a c before an e or i, since it already had an s sound. Or am I missing something?
Brazilian dude
You’re missing the actual pronunciation of the pair "c/z" in Old Spanish and Modern Northern-Dialectical Spanish!! They are in no way pronounced [s]! This is so obvious to me! But, well, I belong to the minority, I know…
As above, the @ is different , as is the s/z. The ‘@’ is pronounced further back, and with the lips wider. Tending toward Mexican and less toward schwa. I would lower my tongue too.
All the material I have about Latvie¨u valoda (mostly in Japanese) shows the diacritic exactly like a comma. Besides, the "cedille" is never attached to the letter. Perhaps this is one of those things in the world "with the common origin but look differently now." In that case I would like to call it by the appellation that Latvians themselves use. Any idea?
I agree… Everything I have here looks like a comma under the letter; but, well, I don’t know the translation so let’s domesticate!
