Ç
Encyclopedia
is a Latin script letter, used in the Albanian
, Azerbaijani
, Ligurian, Tatar
, Turkish
, Turkmen
, Kurdish
and Zazaki
alphabets. This letter also appears in Catalan, French
, Friulian, Occitan
and Portuguese
as a variant of the letter “c”. It is also occasionally used in Crimean Tatar, and Manx
.
It was first used for the sound of the voiceless alveolar affricate
/t͡s/ in old Spanish
and stems from the Visigothic
form of the letter "z" (ꝣ). This phoneme
originated in Vulgar Latin
from the palatalization
of the plosives /t/ and /k/ in some conditions. Later, /t͡s/ changed into /s/ in many Romance languages and dialects. Spanish has not used this symbol since an orthographic reform in the 18th century, but it was adopted for writing other languages.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet
, /ç/ represents the voiceless palatal fricative
.
In transliteration of the Indic scripts, ç represents the aspirated
voiceless postalveolar affricate
: /t͡ʃʰ/.
/t͡ʃ/ in the following languages:
A letter that is identical to the C-cedilla is used in the Bashkir language
's Cyrillic alphabet as the /θ/ sound and in the Chuvash language
's Cyrillic alphabet as the /ç/ sound.
keyboards, "ç" is directly available as a separate key; however, on most other keyboards, including the US/British QWERTY keyboard, a combination of keys must be used:
Albanian alphabet
The modern Albanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and consists of 36 letters:Note: The vowels are shown in bold. to the pronunciation of the letters.-History:...
, Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani alphabet
In the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani alphabet refers to a Latin alphabet used for writing the Azerbaijani language. This superseded a previous versions based on Cyrillic and Arabic scripts....
, Ligurian, Tatar
Tatar alphabet
Two scripts are currently used for the Tatar language: Cyrillic and Latin.-Introduction:While a Tatar version of the Latin alphabet called Jaŋalif had been in use during the 1930s, there is controversy in the matter of Latin-based Tatar alphabet for İdel-Ural Tatar. One dimension of the...
, Turkish
Turkish alphabet
The Turkish alphabet is a Latin alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of the language. This alphabet represents modern Turkish pronunciation with a high degree of accuracy...
, Turkmen
Turkmen alphabet
The current official Turkmen alphabet as used in Turkmenistan is a Latin alphabet based on the Turkish alphabet, but with notable differences: J is used instead of the Turkish C; Ž is used instead of the Turkish J; Y is used instead of the dotless i ; Ý is used instead of the Turkish consonantal Y;...
, Kurdish
Kurdish language
Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
and Zazaki
Zazaki language
Zazaki is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey. According to Ethnologue, the language is a part of the northwestern group of the Iranian section of the Indo-European family. Zazaki shares many features, structures, and vocabulary with Gorani, Talyshi and other Caspian...
alphabets. This letter also appears in Catalan, French
French alphabet
The French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with five diacritics and two orthographic ligatures.-Letter names:- Diacritics :...
, Friulian, Occitan
Occitan alphabet
The Occitan alphabet consists of the following 23 Latin letters:The letters K, W and Y are considered foreign and are used only in words of foreign origin, incrementally integrated into Occitan, such as whisky, watt, Kenya...
and Portuguese
Portuguese alphabet
The Portuguese alphabet, , consists of the following 23 or 26 Latin letters:In addition, the following characters with diacritics are used: Áá, Ââ, Ãã, Àà, Çç, Éé, Êê, Íí, Óó, Ôô, Õõ, Úú. These are not, however, treated as independent letters in collation, nor do they have entries of their own in...
as a variant of the letter “c”. It is also occasionally used in Crimean Tatar, and Manx
Manx language
Manx , also known as Manx Gaelic, and as the Manks language, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, historically spoken by the Manx people. Only a small minority of the Island's population is fluent in the language, but a larger minority has some knowledge of it...
.
It was first used for the sound of the voiceless alveolar affricate
Voiceless alveolar affricate
The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩ . The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in such languages as German, Cantonese, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin...
/t͡s/ in old Spanish
Old Spanish language
Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian or Mediaeval Spanish , is an early form of the Spanish language that was spoken on the Iberian Peninsula from the tenth century until roughly the beginning of the fifteenth century, before a consonantic readjustment gave rise to the evolution of modern...
and stems from the Visigothic
Visigothic script
Visigothic script was a type of medieval script that originated in the Visigothic kingdom in Hispania...
form of the letter "z" (ꝣ). This phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
originated in Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
from the palatalization
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
of the plosives /t/ and /k/ in some conditions. Later, /t͡s/ changed into /s/ in many Romance languages and dialects. Spanish has not used this symbol since an orthographic reform in the 18th century, but it was adopted for writing other languages.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
, /ç/ represents the voiceless palatal fricative
Voiceless palatal fricative
The voiceless palatal fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The symbol ç is the letter c with a cedilla, as used to spell French words such as façade...
.
In transliteration of the Indic scripts, ç represents the aspirated
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
voiceless postalveolar affricate
Voiceless postalveolar affricate
The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩...
: /t͡ʃʰ/.
Usage as a letter variant in various languages
It represents the "soft" sound /s/ where a "c" would normally represent the "hard" sound /k/ (before "a", "o", "u", or at the end of a word), in the following languages:- CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
. Known as ce trencada (that is, "broken C") in this language, where it can be used before "a", "o", "u", or at the end of a word. Some examples of words with "c"-cedilla are: amenaça "menace", torçat "twisted", xoriço "chorizo", forçut "strong", dolç "sweet", caça "hunting". A well-known word with this character is Barça, a common Catalan diminutive for FC BarcelonaFC BarcelonaFutbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....
, also used across the world, including by the Spanish-language media. - FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
(cé cédille). Examples: français "French", garçon "boy", grinçant "squeaking", leçon "lesson", reçu "received" (past participle). French uses this character at the beginning of a word (ça "that"), but not at the end. In French comic books that are hand-lettered in all-capitals, the cedilla is written as a slash crossing the center of the lower hook of the letter "C", at the angle of an acute accentAcute accentThe acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...
. Also, the "ç" is used only in front of a, o and u letters. It is not needed in front of e, i or y (The letter "c" denotes the unvoiced /s/ in front of e, i and y). - FriulianFriulian languageFriulan , is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family, spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy. Friulan has around 800,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak Italian...
(c cun cedilie). It represents the voiceless postalveolar affricateVoiceless postalveolar affricateThe voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩...
/t͡ʃ/ before "a", "o", "u" or at the end of a word. - Occitan (ce cedilha). Examples: torçut "twisted", çò "this", ça que la "nevertheless", braç "arm", brèç "cradle", voraç "voracious".
- PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
(cê cedilhado or cê-cedilha). Denotes unvoiced /s/ before "a", "o", or "u". Examples: taça "cup", braço "arm", açúcar "sugar", coração "heart", pinça "pincers", maçã "apple". Modern Portuguese never uses this character at the beginning or at the end of a word (e.g., the pet-name for Conceição is São, not "Ção"), nor before "e" or "i" (in this case, "c" denotes the unvoiced /s/). - In EnglishEnglish alphabetThe modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters and 2 ligatures – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet:...
and BasqueBasque alphabetThe Basque alphabet is a Latin-derived alphabet used to write the Basque language. It consists of 27 letters.- List of letters :The letters of the Basque alphabet are the 26 letters of the basic modern Latin alphabet plus the ñ .This is the whole list:-Digraphs:There are several digraphs The Basque...
ç (called c-cedilla in English and ze hautsia in Basque) is used in loanwords like façade and limaçonLimaçonIn geometry, a limaçon or limacon , also known as a limaçon of Pascal, is defined as a roulette formed when a circle rolls around the outside of a circle of equal radius. It can also be defined as the roulette formed when a circle rolls around a circle with half its radius so that the smaller...
(although normally the cedillaCedillaA cedilla , also known as cedilha or cédille, is a hook added under certain letters as a diacritical mark to modify their pronunciation.-Origin:...
mark is dropped in English, e.g. facade). In SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
it can also appear in loanwords, especially in Catalan names and toponymy. - In ManxManx languageManx , also known as Manx Gaelic, and as the Manks language, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, historically spoken by the Manx people. Only a small minority of the Island's population is fluent in the language, but a larger minority has some knowledge of it...
it is used in the digraphDigraph (orthography)A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
"çh", pronounced [t͡ʃ], to differentiate it from normal "ch", pronounced [x].
Usage as a separate letter in various languages
It represents the voiceless postalveolar affricateVoiceless postalveolar affricate
The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩...
/t͡ʃ/ in the following languages:
- AlbanianAlbanian languageAlbanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
: the 4th letter of the Albanian alphabetAlbanian alphabetThe modern Albanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and consists of 36 letters:Note: The vowels are shown in bold. to the pronunciation of the letters.-History:...
. - AzerbaijaniAzerbaijani languageAzerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
: the 4th letter of the Azerbaijani alphabetAzerbaijani alphabetIn the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani alphabet refers to a Latin alphabet used for writing the Azerbaijani language. This superseded a previous versions based on Cyrillic and Arabic scripts....
. - PashtoPashto languagePashto , known as Afghani in Persian and Pathani in Punjabi , is the native language of the indigenous Pashtun people or Afghan people who are found primarily between an area south of the Amu Darya in Afghanistan and...
: the 5th letter of the Pashto Latin alphabet. - TatarTatar languageThe Tatar language , or more specifically Kazan Tatar, is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars of historical Kazan Khanate, including modern Tatarstan and Bashkiria...
: the 5th letter of the Tatar alphabetTatar alphabetTwo scripts are currently used for the Tatar language: Cyrillic and Latin.-Introduction:While a Tatar version of the Latin alphabet called Jaŋalif had been in use during the 1930s, there is controversy in the matter of Latin-based Tatar alphabet for İdel-Ural Tatar. One dimension of the...
(based on Zamanälif). - TurkishTurkish languageTurkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
: the 4th letter of the Turkish alphabetTurkish alphabetThe Turkish alphabet is a Latin alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of the language. This alphabet represents modern Turkish pronunciation with a high degree of accuracy...
. - TurkmenTurkmen languageTurkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan...
: the 3rd letter of the Turkmen alphabetTurkmen alphabetThe current official Turkmen alphabet as used in Turkmenistan is a Latin alphabet based on the Turkish alphabet, but with notable differences: J is used instead of the Turkish C; Ž is used instead of the Turkish J; Y is used instead of the dotless i ; Ý is used instead of the Turkish consonantal Y;...
. - Zazaki: the 4th letter of the Zazaki alphabetZazakiZazaki is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey. According to Ethnologue, the language is a part of the northwestern group of the Iranian section of the Indo-European family. Zazaki shares many features, structures, and vocabulary with Gorani, Talyshi and other Caspian...
.
A letter that is identical to the C-cedilla is used in the Bashkir language
Bashkir language
The Bashkir language is a Turkic language, and is the language of the Bashkirs. It is co-official with Russian in the Republic of Bashkortostan.-Speakers:...
's Cyrillic alphabet as the /θ/ sound and in the Chuvash language
Chuvash language
Chuvash is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages....
's Cyrillic alphabet as the /ç/ sound.
Computer
| Charset | Unicode Unicode Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems... |
ISO 8859-1, 2, 3, 9, 14, 15, 16 |
|---|---|---|
| Majuscule | U+00C7 | C7 |
| Minuscule | U+00E7 | E7 |
Input
On French AZERTYAZERTY
AZERTY is a specific layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letters to appear on the first row of alphabetical keys...
keyboards, "ç" is directly available as a separate key; however, on most other keyboards, including the US/British QWERTY keyboard, a combination of keys must be used:
- In Mac OSMac OSMac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
, "Ç" can be typed by using shift + optionOption keyThe Option key is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. There are two option keys on modern Mac desktop and notebook keyboards, one on each side of the space bar....
+ c and "ç" can be typed using optionOption keyThe Option key is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. There are two option keys on modern Mac desktop and notebook keyboards, one on each side of the space bar....
+ c
- The HTML character entity reference for "Ç" is
Çandçfor "ç".
- In TeXTeXTeX is a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. Within the typesetting system, its name is formatted as ....
and LaTeXLaTeXLaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to...
,\cis used for adding the cedillaCedillaA cedilla , also known as cedilha or cédille, is a hook added under certain letters as a diacritical mark to modify their pronunciation.-Origin:...
accent to a letter, so\c{c}produces "ç".
- In Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, "Ç" can be produced by typing "ALT+0199" or "ALT+128", and "ç" can be produced by typing "ALT+0231", or "ALT+135".
- In Microsoft WordMicrosoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
, "Ç" can be typed using CTRL + "," and then pressing C, and "ç" can be typed using CTRL + "," and then pressing c.
- In the X Window SystemX Window SystemThe X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
and many UnixUnixUnix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
consoles, the compose keyCompose keyA compose key, available on some computer keyboards, is a special kind of modifier key designated to signal the software to interpret the following sequence of two keystrokes as a combination in order to produce a character not found directly on the keyboard...
combination for "Ç" is COMPOSE "," "C" and for "ç" is COMPOSE "," "c" pressed sequentially. Using Alt-GRAltGr keyAltGr is a modifier key found on many computer keyboards and primarily used to type characters that are unusual for the locale of the keyboard layout, such as currency symbols and accented letters...
the combination is Alt-GR + "=", then C or c respectively for Ç or ç.