accent circonflexe
French edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
accent circonflexe m (plural accents circonflexes)
- circumflex (diacritic)
- Synonyms: circonflexe, (informal or childish) chapeau, chapeau pointu, petit chapeau
- Coordinate terms: accent aigu, accent grave
Usage notes edit
- The circumflex in Early Modern French indicated vowel length, which usually resulted from a lost s or e by way of compensatory lengthening. As most of these long vowels (except ô, in some accents â and ê) have since been shortened, it is now often said that the circumflex is used to represent those lost letters, but this is not its original purpose. Words in which a lost s did not cause lengthening do not have a circumflex (e.g. cette, chaque, notre).
Descendants edit
- → Norwegian Bokmål: accent circonflexe
Norwegian Bokmål edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French accent circonflexe.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
accent circonflexe m (definite singular accent circonflexen, indefinite plural accent circonflexer, definite plural accent circonflexene)
- (orthography) a circumflex (a diacritical mark (ˆ) placed over a vowel or a consonant in the orthography or transliteration of many languages)
- Synonym: cirkumfleks
See also edit
- accent aigu (“acute accent”) and accent grave (“grave accent”)
References edit
- circonflexe “accent circonflexe” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
- “accent circonflexe” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
- “cirkumfleks” in Store norske leksikon