A sicilicus was an old
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
diacritical mark
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
, , like a reversed C (Ɔ) placed above a letter and evidently deriving its name from its shape like a little
sickle
A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feedi ...
(which is ''
sicilis'' in Latin). The ancient sources say that during the time of the
Republic
A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...
it was placed above a
geminate consonant
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
to indicate that the consonant counted twice, although there is hardly any
epigraphic
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
or
paleographic evidence available from such an early time. When such geminate consonants began to be represented during classical times by writing the letter twice, the ''sicilicus'' naturally fell into disuse in this function, but continued to be used to indicate the doubling of vowels as an indication of length, in the developed form of the
apex. Fontaine suggests that
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...
alludes to the sicilicus in the prologue to ''
Menaechmi''.
[ Michael Fontaine]
'' ''Sicilicissitat'' (Plautus, ''Menaechmi'' 12) and Early Geminate Writing in Latin (with an Appendix on ''Men''. 13).''
''Mnemosyne'', Volume 59, Number 1 (2006) pp. 95-110.
See also
*
Open O, although this is a full letter, and not a diacritic placed above a letter
*
Antisigma, although this is a full letter, and not a diacritic placed above a letter
*
Apex (diacritic)
In written Latin language, Latin, the apex (plural "apices") is a mark with roughly the shape of an acute accent () or apostrophe () that was sometimes placed over vowels to indicate that they were long vowel, long.
The shape and length of th ...
, used for long vowels instead of long consonants
*
Apostrophe
The apostrophe (, ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes:
* The marking of the omission of one o ...
, whose shape is derived from it
*
Comma (punctuation)
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical; others give it the appearance of a miniature fille ...
, whose shape is similar
*
Latin spelling and pronunciation
Latin phonology is the system of sounds used in various kinds of Latin. This article largely deals with what features can be deduced for Classical Latin as it was spoken by the educated from the late Roman Republic to the early Roman Empire, Empir ...
References
Lewis and Short Latin Lexicon
Notes
{{Navbox diacritical marks
Latin-script diacritics
Palaeography