{{distinguish | text=the Cyrillic letter Ҫ}} {{about|the Latin script letter|the voiceless palatal fricative represented by /ç/ in the IPA|Voiceless palatal fricative}} {{short description|Latin letter C with cedilla}} {{More citations needed|date=October 2021}} {{Infobox grapheme |name=Ç |letter=Ç ç |image=File:Latin letter C with cedilla.svg |imageclass=skin-invert-image |imagesize=200px |imagealt=Writing cursive forms of Ç |script=Latin script |type=Alphabet |typedesc=ic and Logographic |language=Old Catalan language |phonemes=[{{IPAlink|s}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|d͡ʒ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|t͡s}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|d͡z}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ç}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ɽ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ǂ}}]<br> [{{IPAlink|θ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ð}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ɕ}}] |unicode=U+00C7, U+00E7 |alphanumber= |number= |fam1=<hiero>Z4</hiero> |fam2=class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Sinaitic Zayin |fam3=class=skin-invert-image|20px |fam4=class=skin-invert-image|20px|Phoenician Zayin |fam5=class=skin-invert-image|30px |fam6=Ζ ζ |fam7=𐌆 |fam8=Z z |fam9=Ꝣ ꝣ |usageperiod=~900 to present |children=None |sisters= Zz Źź Żż Žž Ƶƶ Ȥȥ Ɀɀ ʐ ʑ ᵶ ᶎ Ẑẑ Ẕẕ Ẓẓ Ⱬⱬ Ʒʒ Ζζ Зз З́з́ Ҙҙ Ӟӟ З̌з̌ Ӡӡ |equivalents=ch, c, s, ts |associates=c, ch, s, ts |direction=Left-to-Right }}'''Ç''' or '''ç''' ('''C with cedilla''', '''broken C''') is a Latin script letter used in the Albanian, Azerbaijani, Manx, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Kurdish, Kazakh, and Romance alphabets. Romance languages that use this letter include Catalan, French, Portuguese, and Occitan, as a variant of the letter ''C'' with a cedilla. It is also occasionally used in Crimean Tatar and in Tajik (when written in the Latin script) to represent the {{IPAslink|d͡ʒ}} sound. It is rarely used in Balinese, usually only in the word "Çaka" during Nyepi, one of the Balinese Hinduism holidays. It is often retained in the spelling of loanwords from any of these languages in English, Basque, Dutch, Spanish and other languages using the Latin alphabet. alt=ci|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|Form as ''Ci''. It was first used for the sound of the voiceless alveolar affricate {{IPAslink|t͡s}} in Old Catalan as a simplification of "Ci".
It also originated in Old Spanish, where it stems from the Visigothic form of the letter ''z'' {{angbr|Ꝣ}}.
The phoneme originated in Vulgar Latin from the palatalization of the plosives {{IPAslink|t}} and {{IPAslink|k}} in some conditions. Later, {{IPA|/t͡s/}} changed into {{IPAslink|s}} in many Romance languages and dialects. Spanish has not used the symbol since an orthographic reform in the 18th century (which replaced ''ç'' with the ''z'', which has now been devoiced into {{IPAslink|θ}} or {{IPAslink|s}}), but it was adopted for writing other languages.
==Usage as a letter variant in various languages== class=skin-invert-image|thumb|200px|right|Evolution from Visigoth Z {{angbr|Ꝣ}} to modern {{angbr|Ç}}. In many languages, {{angbr|ç}} represents the "soft" sound {{IPAslink|s}} where a {{angbr|c}} would normally represent the "hard" sound {{IPAslink|k}}. These include: *Catalan. Known as ''ce trencada'' ('broken C') in this language, where it can be used before {{angbr|a}}, {{angbr|o}}, {{angbr|u}} or at the end of a word. Some examples of words with {{angbr|ç}} are ''amenaça'' ('menace'), ''torçat'' ('twisted'), ''xoriço'' ('chorizo'), ''forçut'' ('strong'), ''dolç'' ('sweet') and ''caça'' ('hunt'). The only two words starting with ''ç'' that can be found in the dictionary are ''ço'' ('this') and ''ça'' ('here'), which are rarely used, except for some expressions like ''ço que'' ('which'). A well-known word with this character is ''Barça'', a common Catalan clipping of Futbol Club Barcelona. When writing by hand, Catalans don't write ''ç'' with a cedilla under it, but a symbol similar to a comma, which crosses the ''c'' (called ''trenc'').<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2024-03-03 |title=D'on ve la ce trencada? Els secrets d'una lletra documentada en català fa més de mil anys |url=https://www.3cat.cat/324/don-ve-la-ce-trencada-els-secrets-duna-lletra-documentada-en-catala-fa-mes-de-mil-anys/noticia/3279891/ |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=3Cat |language=ca}}</ref> In fact, some scholars like Jesús Alturo claim that ''ce trencada'' evolved from combining ''c'' and ''i'' (written c<sub>i</sub>) instead of the letter ''z''.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.3cat.cat/3cat/tania-alaix-i-jesus-alturo-ramon-de-cabo-tenia-una-categoria-cultural-remarcable/video/6139344/ |title=Més 324 - Tània Alaix i Jesús Alturo: "Ramon de Cabó tenia una categoria cultural remarcable" |language=ca |access-date=2024-10-09 |via=3cat}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> *French (''cé cédille''): ''français'' ('French'), ''garçon'' ('boy'), ''façade'' ('frontage'), ''grinçant'' ('squeaking'), ''leçon'' ('lesson'), ''reçu'' ('received' [past participle]). French does not use the character at the end of a word but it can occur at the beginning of a word (e.g., ''ça'', 'that').<ref name=":0">The Académie Française online [http://atilf.atilf.fr/academie9.htm dictionary] also gives ''çà'' and ''çûdra''.</ref> It is never used in French where C would denote /s/ (before e, i, y) nor before h. *Occitan (''ce cedilha''): ''torçut'' ('twisted'), ''çò'' ('this'), ''ça que la'' ('nevertheless'), ''braç'' ('arm'), ''brèç'' ('cradle'), ''voraç'' ('voracious'). It can occur at the beginning or end of words. *Portuguese (''cê-cedilha'', ''cê de cedilha'' or ''cê cedilhado''): it is used before {{angbr|a}}, {{angbr|o}}, {{angbr|u}}: ''taça'' ('cup'), ''braço'' ('arm'), ''açúcar'' ('sugar'). Modern Portuguese does not use the character at the beginning or at the end of a word (the nickname for ''Conceição'' is ''São'', not ''Ção''). According to a Portuguese grammar written in 1550, the letter ç had the sound of /dz/ around that time. Another grammar written around 1700 would say that the letter ç sounds like /s/, which shows a phonetic evolution that is still valid today. *Old Galician used the ç letter, however it is no longer present in the official norm for the Galician language by the Royal Galician Academy. However, the unofficial norm for the Galician language by the AGAL reclaims {{angbr|ç}} as part of the language. *Old Spanish used {{angbr|ç}} to represent /t͡s/. *Early Modern Spanish used the letter ç to represent either /θ/ or /s/ before /a/, /o/, and /u/ in much the same way as Modern Spanish uses the letter z. Middle Castilian Spanish pronounced {{angbr|ç}} as /θ/. Andalusian, Canarian, and Latin American Spanish pronounced {{angbr|ç}} as /s/. A spelling reform in the 18th century eliminated {{angbr|ç}} from Spanish orthography.
In other languages, it represents the voiceless postalveolar affricate {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}} (like {{angbr|ch}} in English ''chalk''): *Albanian *Turkish *Friulian (''c cun cedilie'') before {{angbr|a}}, {{angbr|o}}, {{angbr|u}} or at the end of a word. *Croatian *Balinese Ç usually used to commemorate the Nyepi holiday only used in the word 'Çaka', for example: *:"Selamat Hari Raya Nyepi tahun Çaka 1945" *:(Happy Nyepi Day in Çaka 1945) :The pronunciation is similar to the slavic S.
* In Manx it is used in the digraph {{angbr|çh}}, which also represents {{IPAslink|t͡ʃ}}, to differentiate it from normal {{angbr|ch}}, which represents {{IPAslink|x}}.
===In loanwords only=== *In Basque, {{angbr|ç}} (known as ''ze hautsia'') is used in the loanword ''Curaçao''. *In Dutch, it can be found in some words from French and Portuguese, such as ''façade'', ''reçu'', ''Provençaals'' and ''Curaçao''. *In English, {{angbr|ç}} is used in loanwords such as ''façade'' and ''limaçon'' (although the cedilla mark is often dropped: ''facade'', ''limacon'').
==As a separate letter in various languages== It represents the voiceless postalveolar affricate {{IPAslink|t͡ʃ}} in the following languages:
*the 4th letter of the Albanian alphabet. *the 4th letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet. *the 4th letter of the Dobrujan Tatar alphabet. *the 4th letter of the Turkish alphabet. *the 3rd letter of the Turkmen alphabet. *the 4th letter of the Kurmanji alphabet (also known as Northern Kurdish). *the 4th letter of the Zazaki alphabet. *the 4th letter of the Croatian alphabet used in "Kraglski Dalmatin" thumb|Catalan way of writing ''Ç''. In the 2020 version of the Latin Kazakh Alphabet, the letter represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate {{IPAslink|tɕ}}, which is similar to {{IPAslink|t͡ʃ}}.
It previously represented a voiceless palatal click {{IPAslink|ǂ}} in Juǀʼhoansi and Naro, though the former has replaced it with {{angle bracket|ǂ}} and the latter with {{angle bracket|tc}}.
The similarly shaped letter the (Ҫ ҫ) is used in the Cyrillic alphabets of Bashkir and Chuvash to represent {{IPAslink|θ}} and {{IPAslink|ɕ}}, respectively.
In Tatar, ç represents {{IPAslink|ɕ}}.
It also represents the retroflex flap {{IPAslink|ɽ}} in the Rohingya Latin alphabet.
Janalif uses this letter to represent the voiced postalveolar affricate {{IPAslink|d͡ʒ}}
Old Malay uses ç to represent {{IPAslink|dʒ}} and {{IPAslink|ɲ}}.
==Computer== * {{unichar| 00C7 }} * {{unichar| 00E7 }}
* {{unichar| A762 }} * {{unichar| A763 }}
===Input===
On Albanian, Belgian, European French, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Turkish and Italian keyboards, {{key press|Ç}} is directly available as a separate key. On most other keyboards, other methods must be used. It can also be typed with {{keypress|Alt|0}}{{keypress|1|9|9|chain=}}.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Wiktionary|Ç|ç}}
{{Latin script}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:C}} C-cedilla Category:Phonetic transcription symbols Category:Polish letters with diacritics