A small curved mark placed beneath the letter 'c' (as in ç) to show that it makes an 's' sound instead of a 'k' sound.
From Spanish 'cedilla,' a diminutive of 'ceda' (zeta), from Latin 'zeta.' The mark was originally a small 'z' written below 'c' to indicate pronunciation.
This tiny squiggle is a ghost of medieval Spanish handwriting—scribes used to write a miniature 'z' under 'c' to remind readers how to pronounce it, and that habit literally shaped how we write French and Spanish today!
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