L2/04-202

To Unicode Technical Committee
From: Deborah Anderson
Date: 7 June 2004
RE: Slashed C feedback 

I sent a query to members of the Department of Linguistics at UC 
Berkeley about usage of the cent sign for slashed c (LATIN SMALL 
LETTER C WITH STROKE), as well as a brief message to two linguists 
who were cited in Peter Constable's original proposal and the Public 
Review #35 document, Lyle Campbell and John Robertson. I also 
sent a note to LinguistList about slashed c (referring interested 
parties to the Public Review summary) and a note was circulated 
to SIL linguists. 

1. I received back 7 replies, which helped to identify people 
(or groups) that have used the cent sign in their documents, 
and for whom the addition of this new character might be a concern. 

The following were identified as having used the cent sign in 
their publications:
*Bricker et al., Dictionary of the Maya Language as Spoken in 
Hocabá, Yucatán, 1998, perhaps following the orthography of 
Blair and Vermont Salas, 1965, and ultimately Norman McQuown 
(per Lisa Bennett);

* Terry Kaufman (per Rosemary Beam de Azcona);

* possibly SIL linguists of 40's, 50's, and 60's (per Rich Rhodes).

Lisa Bennett only uses the cent sign when quoting Bricker et al., 
in order to reflect the source document.

Harkening back to the days before computers, Lyle Campbell says he 
has used the cent sign, as well as a slashed c, depending on the 
keyboard of the typewriter he happened to be using (i.e., if 
there was no cent sign on the keyboard, he typed a c then 
backspaced and typed a slash).  Lyle didn't mention what he 
does for electronic versions of his texts. 

Rich Rhodes has used the slashed c, but not recently, and stated 
that his electronic files would not be affected by the inclusion 
of the new character. (He did not mention whether he used the 
cent sign.)

As noted by Lisa Bennett and several respondents, the slashed c 
is used less often today than the ts digraph, the IPA equivalent.

2. My general query did not go into the details of how to check 
on the character mapping for a slashed c (or cent sign) in a font, 
but the glyph must have been distinct (or the input mechanism 
different), because two people who used the slashed c insisted 
they didn't use the cent sign. However, as noted by Lyle Campbell, 
the two (c + slash and cent sign) were probably thought of as the 
same, and Pullum and Ladusaw's Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd ed., 
Chicago, 1996), p. 29, state: "An effective equivalent symbol 
[=lower case c and a superimposed oblique stroke] is usually 
available on the American typewriter keyboards as the 'cent sign'."

Two people advocated a slashed c distinct from the cent sign:  
Rosemary Beam de Azcona (who "never uses the cent sign") and 
John Robertson (though John R. now  uses the ts digraph more
often for Mayan). 

3. Joseph Grimes, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics from Cornell, 
and Director of the Cornell Phonetics Laboratory from 1973-1983, 
felt the cent sign/slashed c would not be acceptable to many 
publishers. He noted that editors don't like slashed c because 
it is "visually crowded."

Respondents included:

Lisa Bennett, graduate student, Dept. of Linguistics, UC Berkeley

Joseph E. Grimes, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Cornell University,
Director, Cornell Phonetics Laboratory, 1973-1983

Rosemary Beam de Azcona, graduate student, Dept. of Linguistics, UC Berkeley

Lyle Campbell, Prof., Dept. of Linguistics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

John Robertson, Prof., Dept.of Linguistics, Brigham Young University

Ian Maddieson, Adjunct Prof., Dept. of Linguistics, UC Berkeley

Richard Rhodes, Prof., Dept. of Linguistics, UC Berkeley