accent circonflexe

French

Etymology

Latin accentus circumflexus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak.sɑ̃ siʁ.kɔ̃.flɛks/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

accent circonflexe m (plural accents circonflexes)

1. circumflex (diacritic)

   Synonyms: circonflexe, (informal or childish) chapeau, chapeau pointu, petit chapeau

   Coordinate terms: accent aigu, accent grave

Usage notes

• 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

• → Norwegian Bokmål: accent circonflexe

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from French accent circonflexe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /akˈsaŋ.sɪrkɔŋˈflɛks/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛks
• Hyphenation: ac‧cent‧cir‧con‧flexe

Noun

accent circonflexe m (definite singular accent circonflexen, indefinite plural accent circonflexer, definite plural accent circonflexene)

1. (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

• accent aigu (“acute accent”) and accent grave (“grave accent”)

References

• circonflexe “accent circonflexe” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “accent circonflexe” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “cirkumfleks” in Store norske leksikon