View source for Cedilla

{{short description|Diacritical mark (¸)}}
{{Redirect|Cedille|the record label|Cedille Records}}
{{distinguish|Sedilia|}}
{{For|the similar looking diacritics|Ogonek|Diacritical comma}}
{{Expand French|fa=yes|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox diacritic|char=◌̧|name=Cedilla |unicode={{unichar|0327|cwith=◌|combining cedilla}} (diacritic) |see_also={{unichar|00B8|cedilla}} (symbol)
}}
{{Orthography notation}}
A '''cedilla''' ({{IPAc-en|s|ᵻ|ˈ|d|ɪ|l|ə}} {{respell|sih|DIL|ə}}; from [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''{{linktext|cedilla|lang=es}}'', "small ''ceda''", i.e. small "z"), or '''cedille''' (from French {{lang|fr|cédille}}, {{IPA|fr|sedij|pron}}), is a hook or tail ({{char|¸}}) added under certain letters (as a [[diacritic|diacritical mark]]) to indicate  that their pronunciation is modified. In [[Catalan language|Catalan]] (where it is called {{lang|ca|trenc}}), [[French language|French]], and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] (where it is called a {{lang|pt|cedilha}}) it is used only under the letter {{angbr|c}} (to form {{angbr|ç}}), and the entire letter is called, respectively, {{lang|ca|c trencada}} (i.e. "broken C"), {{lang|fr|c cédille}}, and {{lang|pt|c cedilhado}} (or {{lang|pt|c cedilha}}, colloquially). It is used to mark vowel nasalization in many languages of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]], including [[Vute language|Vute]] from [[Cameroon]].

This diacritic is not to be confused with the ''[[ogonek]]'' (◌̨), which resembles the cedilla but mirrored. It looks also very similar to the [[Comma#Diacritical_usage|diacritical comma]], which is used in the Romanian and [[Latvian alphabet]], and which is misnamed "cedilla" in the Unicode standard.

There is substantial overlap between the cedilla and a [[diacritical comma]]. The cedilla is traditionally centered on the letter, and when there is no stroke for it to attach to in that position, as in ''Ņ ņ'', the connecting stroke is omitted, taking the form of a comma. However, the cedilla may instead be shifted left or right to attach to a descending leg. In some orthographies the comma form has been generalized even in cases where the cedilla could attach, as in ''Ḑ ḑ'', but is still considered to be a cedilla. This produces a contrast between attached and non-attached (comma) glyphs, which is usually left to the font but in the cases of ''Ş ş Ţ ţ'' and ''Ș ș Ț ț'' is formalized by Unicode.

==Origin==
[[File:Visigothic Z-C cedille.svg|thumb|upright|Origin of the cedilla from the [[Visigothic script|Visigothic]] z]]
[[File:Modernist Ç.png|thumb|upright|A conventional "ç" and 'modernist' cedilla "c̦" (right). (Helvetica and Akzidenz-Grotesk Book)]]
The tail originated in Spain as the bottom half of a miniature [[cursive]] [[z]]. The word ''cedilla'' is the [[diminutive]] of the [[Old Spanish language|Old Spanish]] name for this letter, {{lang|osp|[[zeta (letter)|ceda]]}} ({{lang|osp|zeta}}).<ref>For {{lang|osp|cedilla}} being the diminutive of {{lang|osp|ceda}}, see [http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&LEMA=cedilla definition of ''cedilla''], {{lang|es|Diccionario de la lengua española}}, 22nd edition, [[Real Academia Española]] {{in lang|es}}, which can be seen in context by accessing the [http://www.rae.es/ site of the Real Academia] and searching for {{lang|es|cedilla}}. (This was accessed 27 July 2006.)</ref> Modern Spanish and isolationist Galician no longer use this diacritic, although it is used in [[Reintegrationism|Reintegrationist Galician]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]],<ref name="OED2">{{OED|cedilla}}</ref> [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Occitan language|Occitan]], and [[French language|French]], which gives [[English language|English]] the alternative spellings of ''cedille'', from [[French language|French]] "{{lang|fr|cédille}}", and the [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] form {{lang|pt|cedilha}}. An obsolete spelling of ''cedilla'' is ''cerilla''.<ref name="OED2"/> The earliest use in English cited by the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''<ref name="OED2"/> is a 1599 Spanish-English dictionary and grammar.<ref>Minsheu, John (1599) ''Percyvall's (R.) Dictionarie in Spanish and English'' (as enlarged by J. Minsheu) Edm. Bollifant, London, {{OCLC|3497853}}</ref> Chambers' ''Cyclopædia''<ref>Chambers, Ephraim (1738) ''Cyclopædia; or, an universal dictionary of arts and sciences'' (2nd ed.) {{OCLC|221356381}}</ref> is cited for the printer-trade variant ''[[c-cedilla|ceceril]]'' in use in 1738.<ref name="OED2"/>  Its use in English is not universal and applies to loan words from [[French language|French]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] such as ''[[façade]]'', ''[[limaçon]]'' and ''[[cachaça]]'' (often typed ''facade'', ''limacon'' and ''cachaca'' because of lack of ''ç'' keys on English-language keyboards).

With the advent of [[modern typography|typeface modernism]], the calligraphic nature of the cedilla was thought somewhat jarring on [[sans-serif]] typefaces, and so some designers instead substituted a comma design, which could be made bolder and more compatible with the style of the text.{{efn|Fonts with this design include [[Akzidenz-Grotesk]] and [[Helvetica]], especially the Neue Haas Grotesk digitisation.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Jacquerye|first1=Denis Moyogo|title=Comments on cedilla and comma below (revision 2)|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13155r-cedilla-comma.pdf|publisher=Unicode Consortium|access-date=3 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Neue Haas Grotesk|url=http://www.fontbureau.com/nhg/|publisher=The Font Bureau, Inc.|page=Introduction}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linotype.com/6598/neuehaasgrotesk.html |title=Neue Haas Grotesk - Font News |publisher=Linotype.com |access-date=2013-09-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.christianschwartz.com/haasgrotesk.shtml |title=Schwartzco Inc |publisher=Christianschwartz.com |access-date=2013-09-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Akzidenz Grotesk Buch|url=http://www.fonts.com/font/berthold/akzidenz-grotesk-bq/collection-volume|publisher=Berthold/Monotype|access-date=3 July 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704103208/http://www.fonts.com/font/berthold/akzidenz-grotesk-bq/collection-volume|archive-date=4 July 2015}}</ref>}} This reduces the visual distinction between the cedilla and the [[diacritical comma]].

==C==
{{Main|Ç}}
The most frequent character with cedilla is "ç" ("c" with cedilla, as in ''façade''). It was first used for the sound of the [[voiceless alveolar affricate]] {{IPA|/ts/}} in old Spanish and stems from the letter {{angbr|ꝣ}} (the [[Visigothic script|Visigothic]] form of the letter {{angbr|z}}), whose upper loop was lengthened and reinterpreted as a "c", whereas its lower loop became the diminished appendage, the cedilla.

It represents the "soft" sound {{IPA|/s/}}, the [[voiceless alveolar sibilant]], where a "c" would normally represent the "hard" sound {{IPA|/k/}} (before "a", "o", "u", or at the end of a word) in English and in certain Romance languages such as [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Galician language|Galician]], [[French language|French]] (where ç appears in the name of the language itself, ''{{lang|fr|[[french language|français]]}}''), [[Ligurian (Romance language)|Ligurian]], [[Occitan language|Occitan]], and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]. In Occitan, Friulian, and Catalan, ''ç'' can also be found at the beginning of a word (''{{lang|oc|Çubran}}'', ''{{lang|fur|ço}}'') or at the end (''{{lang|ca|braç}}'').

It represents the [[voiceless postalveolar affricate]] {{IPA|/tʃ/}} (as in English "'''ch'''ur'''ch'''") in [[Albanian language|Albanian]], [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]], [[Friulian language|Friulian]], [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]], [[Tatar language|Tatar]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]] (as in ''{{lang|az|çiçek}}'', ''{{lang|tr|çam}}'', ''{{lang|tr|çekirdek}}'', ''{{lang|tr|[[Çorum]]}}''), and [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]]. It is also sometimes used this way in [[Manx language|Manx]], to distinguish it from the [[Voiceless velar fricative|velar fricative]].

In the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]], ⟨ç⟩ represents the [[voiceless palatal fricative]].

==S==
{{Main|Ş}}
The character "ş" represents the [[voiceless postalveolar fricative]] {{IPA|/ʃ/}} (as in "<u>sh</u>ow") in several languages, including many belonging to the [[Turkic languages]], and included as a separate letter in their alphabets:
* [[Turkish language|Turkish]]
* [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]]
* [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]]
* [[Gagauz language|Gagauz]]
* [[Tatar language|Tatar]]
* [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]]
* [[Romanian language|Romanian]] (substitution use when [[S-comma]] [Ș] was missing from pre-3.0 [[Unicode]] standards, and older standards, still frequent, but an error)
* [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]]
In [[HTML character entity reference]]s <code>&amp;#350;</code> and <code>&amp;#351;</code> can be used.

==T==
{{Main|Ţ}}
[[Gagauz language|Gagauz]] uses Ţ (T with cedilla), one of the few languages to do so, and Ş (S with cedilla). Besides being present in some Gagauz orthographies, T with Cedilla also exists in the [[General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages]], in the [[Kabyle language|Kabyle]] language, in the [[Manjak language|Manjak]] and [[Mankanya language|Mankanya]] languages, and possibly elsewhere.

In 1868, Ambroise Firmin-Didot suggested in his book ''{{lang|fr|Observations sur l'orthographe, ou ortografie, française}}'' (Observations on French Spelling) that French phonetics could be better regularized by adding a cedilla beneath the letter "t" in some words. For example, the suffix ''{{lang|fr|-tion}}'' is usually not pronounced as {{IPA|/tjɔ̃/}} but as {{IPA|/sjɔ̃/}}. It has to be distinctly learned that in words such as ''{{lang|fr|diplomatie}}'' (but not ''{{lang|fr|diplomatique}}''), it is pronounced {{IPA|/s/}}. A similar effect occurs with other prefixes or within words. Firmin-Didot surmised that a new character could be added to French orthography. A letter with the same description, [[Ţ|T-cedilla]] (majuscule: Ţ, minuscule: ţ), is used in [[Gagauz language|Gagauz]]. A similar letter, the [[T-comma]] (majuscule: Ț, minuscule: ț), exists in Romanian, but it has a comma accent, not a cedilla.

==Languages with other characters with cedillas==
===Latvian===
Comparatively, some consider the diacritics on the [[palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] Latvian consonants "ģ", "ķ", "ļ", "ņ", and formerly "ŗ" to be cedillas. Although their Adobe glyph names are [[comma (diacritic)|commas]], their names in the Unicode Standard are "g", "k", "l", "n", and "r" with a cedilla. The letters were introduced to the Unicode standard before 1992, and their names cannot be altered. The uppercase equivalent "Ģ" sometimes has a regular cedilla.

===Marshallese===
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2023}}
In [[Marshallese orthography]], four letters in [[Marshallese language|Marshallese]] have cedillas: {{angle bracket|ļ m̧ ņ o̧}}.  In standard printed text they are ''always'' cedillas, and their omission or the substitution of [[comma below]] and [[dot below]] diacritics are nonstandard.{{citation needed|reason=Several documents use a detached cedilla, the Marshallese language commission recommended a (non specific) diacritic below. The Marshallese Language Orthography (Standard Spelling) Act of 2010 applies the rules of the MED (1979), but it is not clear what was meant by cedilla, if there is only one correct shape for the cedilla or if the cedilla can have different shapes as it the case in many languages where it can be both detached or attached depending on the font style.|date=June 2013}}

{{As of|2011}}, many font rendering engines do not display ''any'' of these properly, for two reasons:
* "{{lang|mh|ļ}}" and "{{lang|mh|ņ}}" usually do not display properly at all, because of the [[#Latvian|use of the cedilla in Latvian]].  Unicode has precombined glyphs for these letters, but most quality fonts display them with comma below diacritics to accommodate the expectations of [[Latvian orthography]].  This is considered nonstandard in Marshallese. The use of a [[zero-width non-joiner]] between the letter and the diacritic can alleviate this problem: "{{lang|mh|l‌̧}}" and "{{lang|mh|n‌̧}}" may display properly, but may not; see below.
* "{{lang|mh|m̧}}" and "{{lang|mh|o̧}}" do not currently exist in Unicode as precombined glyphs, and must be encoded as the plain Latin letters "{{lang|mh|m}}" and "{{lang|mh|o}}" with the [[Combining character|combining]] cedilla diacritic.  Most Unicode fonts issued with [[Windows]] do not display combining diacritics properly, showing them too far to the right of the letter, as with [[Tahoma (typeface)|Tahoma]] ("<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">m̧</span>" and "<span style="font-family: Tahoma;">o̧</span>") and [[Times New Roman]] ("<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">m̧</span>" and "<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">o̧</span>").  This mostly affects "{{lang|mh|m̧}}", and may or may not affect "{{lang|mh|o̧}}".  But some common Unicode fonts like [[Arial Unicode MS]] ("<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS;">m̧</span>" and "<span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS;">o̧</span>"), [[Cambria (typeface)|Cambria]] ("<span style="font-family: Cambria;">m̧</span>" and "<span style="font-family: Cambria;">o̧</span>") and [[Lucida Sans Unicode]] ("<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;">m̧</span>" and "<span style="font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode;">o̧</span>") do not have this problem.  When "{{lang|mh|m̧}}" is properly displayed, the cedilla is either underneath the center of the letter, or is underneath the right-most leg of the letter, but is always directly underneath the letter wherever it is positioned.

Because of these font display issues, it is not uncommon to find nonstandard ''ad hoc'' substitutes for these letters.  The online version of the Marshallese-English Dictionary (the only complete Marshallese dictionary in existence){{citation needed|date=April 2024}} displays the letters with dot below diacritics, all of which do exist as precombined glyphs in Unicode: "{{lang|mh|ḷ}}", "{{lang|mh|ṃ}}", "{{lang|mh|ṇ}}" and "{{lang|mh|ọ}}". The first three exist in the [[International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration]], and "{{lang|mh|ọ}}" exists in the [[Vietnamese alphabet]], and both of these systems are supported by the most recent versions of common fonts like [[Arial]], [[Courier New]], Tahoma and [[Times New Roman]].  This sidesteps most of the Marshallese text display issues associated with the cedilla, but is still inappropriate for polished standard text.

===Vute===
[[Vute language|Vute]], a [[Mambiloid languages|Mambiloid]] language from [[Cameroon]], uses cedilla for the nasalization of all vowel qualities (cf. the [[ogonek]] used in [[Polish language|Polish]] and [[Navajo language|Navajo]] for the same purpose). This includes unconventional Roman letters that are formalized from the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] into the official writing system.  These include <''i̧ ȩ ɨ̧ ə̧ a̧ u̧ o̧ ɔ̧>.''

===Hebrew===
The [[ISO 259]] romanization of [[Biblical Hebrew]] uses Ȩ (E with cedilla) and Ḝ (E with cedilla and breve).

===Saanich===
[[Saanich dialect|Saanich]] uses a spacing cedilla {{angle bracket|¸}} as a letter. For fonts created or updated after 2025, a cedilla in the middle of a word should not trigger a word break at the end of a line, to accommodate Saanich.

==Diacritical comma==
Languages such as [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Latvian language|Latvian]] and [[Livonian language|Livonian]] add a comma (virgula) to some letters, such as ''{{lang|ro|ș}}'', which looks somewhat like a cedilla, but is more precisely a [[Comma (punctuation)#Diacritical usage|diacritical comma]].  This is particularly confusing with letters which can take either diacritic: for example, the consonant {{IPA|/ʃ/}} is written as "ş" in [[Turkish language|Turkish]] but as "ș" in Romanian, and Romanian writers will sometimes use the former instead of the latter because of insufficient computer support. 

[[Adobe Systems|Adobe]] names of the Latvian letters ({{lang|lvs|"ģ", "ķ", "ļ", "ņ",}} and formerly {{lang|lvs|"ŗ"}}) use the word "comma", but in the [[Unicode]] Standard they are named "g", "k", "l", "n", and "r" with ''cedilla''.  The letters were introduced to the [[Unicode]] standard before 1992, and their names cannot be altered. Influenced by Latvian, Livonian has the same problem for "d̦", "ļ", "ņ", "ŗ" and "ț". 
The [[Polish language|Polish]] letters {{lang|pl|"ą"}} and {{lang|pl|"ę"}} and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] letters {{lang|lt|"ą", "ę", "į",}} and {{lang|lt|"ų"}} are not made with the cedilla either, but with the unrelated [[ogonek]] diacritic.

==Unicode==
Unicode encodes a number of cases of "letter with cedilla" (so called, as explained above) as [[precomposed character]]s.  In addition, several more letters in language orthographies are composed using the [[combining character]] facility ({{unichar|0327|cwith=◌|combining cedilla|nlink=combining character}} and {{unichar|0326|Combining comma below|cwith=◌|nlink=combining character}}).

{{Letters with diacritic/header}}<!--
-->{{hlist|{{Letters with diacritic/diacritic|format=char|d=cedilla}}
{{Letters with diacritic/scriptname|Latin}}[[Ç |Ç{{NNBSP}}ç]]
| Ḉ{{NNBSP}}ḉ <!-- C with cedilla and accute -->
| [[Ḑ |Ḑ{{NNBSP}}ḑ]]
| Ȩ{{NNBSP}}ȩ <!-- U+0228 -->
| Ḝ{{NNBSP}}ḝ <!-- U+1E1C -->
| [[Ģ |Ģ{{NNBSP}}ģ]]
| Ḩ{{NNBSP}}ḩ <!-- U+1E28 -->
| [[Ķ |Ķ{{NNBSP}}ķ]]
| Ļ{{NNBSP}}ļ <!-- U+013b -->
| M̧{{NNBSP}}m̧ 
| Ņ{{NNBSP}}ņ <!-- U+0145 -->
| O̧{{NNBSP}}o̧ 
| Ŗ{{NNBSP}}ŗ <!--U+0156 -->
| [[Ş |Ş{{NNBSP}}ş]]
| [[Ţ |Ţ{{NNBSP}}ţ]]
| Z̧{{NNBSP}}z̧ 
}}{{Letters with diacritic/footer}}<!--

-->
In ambiguous cases, [[typeface designer]]s must choose whether to use a cedilla diacritic or comma-below diacritic for these [[codepoint]]s, leaving it to others to provide the user with a method to achieve the other form (i.e., that relies on the combining character method). Here are three popular faces that demonstrate the choices made:
* <span style="font-family:Arial, serif">Arial: Ç ç Ḉ ḉ Ḑ ḑ Ȩ ȩ Ḝ ḝ Ģ ģ Ḩ ḩ Ķ ķ Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ O̧ o̧ Ŗ ŗ Ş ş Ţ ţ Z̧ z̧</span> <!-- The choice of serif as fall-back face is deliberate, as it reveals any characters not implemented. For an example of why we need to do this, try Garamond. -->
* <span style="font-family:Times New Roman, sans-serif">Times New Roman: Ç ç Ḉ ḉ Ḑ ḑ Ȩ ȩ Ḝ ḝ Ģ ģ Ḩ ḩ Ķ ķ Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ O̧ o̧ Ŗ ŗ Ş ş Ţ ţ Z̧ z̧</span> 
* <span style="font-family:Courier New, serif">Courier New: Ç ç Ḉ ḉ Ḑ ḑ Ȩ ȩ Ḝ ḝ Ģ ģ Ḩ ḩ Ķ ķ Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ O̧ o̧ Ŗ ŗ Ş ş Ţ ţ Z̧ z̧</span>

In each case, the diacritic displayed with D, G, K, L, N and R is a comma-below; in the other cases it is displayed as a cedilla. It may be that computer fonts are sold in the Romanian and Turkish markets that favour the national standard form of this diacritic.

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
{{notelist}}

==External links==
* [http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=entry_detail&uid=jqlp8bzm8m ScriptSource—Positioning the traditional cedilla]
* [http://diacritics.typo.cz Diacritics Project—All you need to design a font with correct accents]
* [http://www.starr.net/is/type/kbh.html Keyboard Help]—Learn how to make world language accent marks and other diacriticals on a computer

{{Navbox diacritical marks}}
{{Latin script||cedilla}}

[[Category:Latin-script diacritics]]
[[Category:Turkish language]]