From: Patrick Andries (pandries@iti.qc.ca)
Date: Mon Sep 30 2002 - 20:59:02 EDT
----- Message d'origine -----
De : "Jim Allan" <jallan@smrtytrek.com>
> "One of the most frequent character with cedilla is the ç (C with
> cedilla). This letter was used for the sound of the affricate [ts] in
> old Spanish.
This distinction was introduced systematically in the secund half of the
XIIth century, « ç » (first written z <sup>c</sup>) for [ts] and « z » (no c
on top) for [dz].
>Contemporary Spanish does not use it anymore, since an
> orthographic reform in the 18th century."
With the transformation of the consonant system in Spanish, the graphical
confusion between « ç » and « z » began to be frequent from the start of the
XVIth century, even among good authors in the XVIIth century : « suzesor ,
pareze, haçer » (and in Andalucia these letters were also confused with «
s »). In 1726 the Academy suppressed the ç letter and consacrated the
orthography « c » in front of « e, i » and « z » in front of « a, o, u » for
the [theta] sound to which [ts] and [dz] had evolved over time.
P. A.
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