Cedilla

It changes a letter’s spelling or sound. French ç keeps c sounding like “s” before a, o, or u, as in façade; Portuguese uses ç in coração. Turkish also uses complete cedilla letters such as ç and ş. A search for a c cedilla usually means the full letter ç, not this spacing mark.

In the Middle Ages, French spellings sometimes used the two-letter forms cz and ce for the same purpose; ce survives in douceâtre. In 1529, French printer Geoffroy Tory borrowed the cedilla from Spanish. Its use spread slowly.

How do I type a cedilla?

In Word, press Ctrl+, then type c or C for ç or Ç.

¸ is a spacing character and takes its own text position. A cedilla letter may be precomposed, such as ç, or formed from a base letter followed by the combining cedilla ̧; the spacing mark does not attach to c.

Why can it look like a comma below?

Some fonts make them hard to tell apart by shape. The combining comma below ̦ is a separate character. Romanian and Latvian spellings use comma-below letters; French and Turkish prefer cedillas. Use the mark belonging to the language’s letter: similar drawing does not make the characters interchangeable.