What is Circumflex?
The '''circumflex''' ('''^'''), also known as the '''caret''', is a [[diacritic]] used in [[French language|French]] and a few other languages. It is like a little hat over a [[vowel]]. Originally, the circumflex was an [[acute accent]] and a [[grave accent]] put together. In French, the circumflex usually shows the loss of letter, usually the loss of the letter [[S]]. Example: maistre (Middle French) > maître (modern French). From here, its function is historical. Also, less often, the circumflex is used to distinguish between [[homophone]]s. These are words spelt the same, but with different meanings. Example: ''sur'' = on, but ''sûr'' = safe or certain. In those cases the [[pronunciation]] of the two words may be different. == Sources == *Catach, Nina (ed) 1995. ''Dictionnaire historique de l'orthographe française''. Paris: Larousse. *Casagrande, Jean 1984. ''The sound system of French''. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. {{ISBN|0-87840-085-0}} {{-}} {{stub}} [[Category:Alphabetic diacritics]]