What is a cedilla used for?

The cedilla is a diacritical mark used in various languages, most notably in French and Portuguese, to modify the pronunciation of the letter "c." When placed beneath the letter "c," it indicates that the letter should be pronounced as a soft "c" (like an "s" sound) rather than a hard "c" (like a "k" sound). This is important in words such as "façade" in French, where the "ç" with a cedilla clearly guides the reader to pronounce it with a soft "s" sound.

The other options do not accurately represent the function of the cedilla:

• Long vowels are typically indicated by other types of markings or simply through context in spelling.

• Syllable boundaries are represented differently in phonetic transcriptions and by other notational systems.

• Silent letters are indicated by the spelling of words themselves, without the need for a diacritical mark like the cedilla.

Thus, the role of the cedilla in denoting a soft "c" sound is its primary and defining function in the languages where it is used.