On 5 Jul 2013, at 08:04, Denis Jacquerye <moyogo_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>> The problem is in pretending that a cedilla and a comma below are equivalent because in some script fonts in France or Turkey routinely write some sort of undifferentiated tick for ç. :-)
>
> Sure they are not equivalent, but stop pretending it is only in some script fonts, the page http://typophile.com/node/49347 has plenty of examples where it is not in script fonts. In some languages the cedilla can have a shape similar to that of a comma, it's a fact.
Yes, well, if there are non-script fonts which have this feature, it nevertheless derived from handwriting. Would any French primer for young children routinely use a full-formed C WITH COMMA BELOW C̦ c̦ regularly throughout? No. Would readers of Le Monde notice if all the fonts one day shifted to C̦ c̦? Of course they would -- and I'd wager €100 they would protest, and loudly.
> Any native speaker will tell you the comma-like form and others are acceptable.
Not by any means in all contexts. In genuine taste-tests, Ç ç would be universally selected as the "more correct" form by French users. C̦ c̦ would not be.
> Just look at lemonde.fr or zaman.com.tr, both very popular newspapers use webfonts with non classic cedilla (Le Monde uses TheMix —even in print it uses TheAntiqua with their comma-like cedilla—
Well, *display fonts* are not the same as body text. Interestingly, TheMix distinguishes its cedilla from its true comma below be sloping the former somewhat noticeably; compare ş ţ with ș ț. And they get it wrong, too, because the shape for the Latvian letters is the sloped one and it should not be.
> and Zaman uses a custom font with an attached tick-like cedilla). This is not the majority but it is frequent enough.
That tick is certainly not a Romanian comma below; it is fused with the letter. And again, it is a specialty *display font*.
I fought this battle back when I supported the Romanian disunification of their letters from the Turkish ones. We're just finishing the job now, as far as I can see.
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/
Received on Fri Jul 05 2013 - 04:13:02 CDT
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