Editing Circumflex (section)

===Abbreviation, contraction, and disambiguation===

==== English ====
In 18th century [[British English]], before the cheap [[Penny Post]] and while paper was taxed, the combination ''[[Ough (orthography)|ough]]'' was occasionally shortened to ''ô'' when the ''gh'' was not pronounced, to save space: ''thô'' for ''though'', ''thorô'' for ''thorough'', and ''brôt'' for ''brought''. {{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

==== French ====
{{Main|Circumflex in French}}
In [[French alphabet|French]], the circumflex generally marks the former presence of a consonant (usually ''s'') that was [[deletion (phonology)|deleted]] and is no longer pronounced. (The corresponding [[Norman French]] words, and consequently the words derived from them in English, frequently retain the lost consonant.) For example:
*''ancêtre'' "ancestor"
*''hôpital'' "hospital"
*''hôtel'' "hostel"
*''forêt'' "forest"
*''rôtir'' "to roast"
*''côte'' "rib, coast, slope"
*''pâté'' "paste"
*''août'' "August"
*''dépôt'' (from the Latin ''depositum'' 'deposit', but now referring to both a deposit or a storehouse of any kind)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dépôt |url=http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/d%C3%A9p%C3%B4t/23875 |access-date=8 December 2016 |website=Larousse |language=fr |archive-date=30 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130114714/http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/d%C3%A9p%C3%B4t/23875 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some [[homophone]]s (or near-homophones in some varieties of French) are distinguished by the circumflex. However, â, ê and ô distinguish different sounds in most varieties of French, for instance ''cote'' {{IPA|fr|kɔt|}} "level, mark, code number" and ''côte'' {{IPA|fr|kot|}} "rib, coast, hillside".

In handwritten French, for example in taking notes, an ''m'' with a circumflex (m̂) is an informal abbreviation for ''même'' "same".

In February 2016, the Académie française decided to remove the circumflex from about 2,000 words, a plan that had been outlined since 1990. However, usage of the circumflex would not be considered incorrect.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 February 2016 |title=End of the Circumflex? Changes in French Spelling Cause Uproar |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35496893 |access-date=21 June 2018 |archive-date=4 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104080028/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35496893 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Italian ====
In [[Italian language|Italian]], ''î'' is occasionally used in the plural of nouns and adjectives ending with ''-io'' {{IPA|it|jo|}} as a [[crasis]] mark. Other possible spellings are ''-ii'' and obsolete ''-j'' or ''-ij''. For example, the plural of {{lang|it|vario}} {{IPA|it|ˈvaːrjo|}} "various" can be spelt {{lang|it|vari}}, {{lang|it|varî}}, {{lang|it|varii}}; the pronunciation will usually stay {{IPA|it|ˈvaːri|}} with only one {{IPA|it|i|}}. The plural forms of {{lang|it|principe}} {{IPA|it|ˈprintʃipe|}} "prince" and of {{lang|it|principio}} {{IPA|it|prinˈtʃiːpjo|}} "principle, beginning" can be confusing. In pronunciation, they are distinguished by whether the stress is on the first or on the second syllable, but {{lang|it|principi}} would be a correct spelling of both. When necessary to avoid ambiguity, it is advised to write the plural of {{lang|it|principio}} as {{lang|it|principî}} or as {{lang|it|principii}}.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

==== Latin ====

In [[Neo-Latin]], circumflex was used most often to disambiguate between forms of the same word that used a long vowel, for example ablative of first declension and genitive of fourth declension, or between second and third conjugation verbs. It was also used for the interjection ''ô''.<ref>{{cite conference |url=https://archive.org/details/hafniactaconvent00inteuoft/page/924/mode/2up |title=Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Hafniensis |last1=Steenbakkers |first1=Piet |pages=925–934 |location=Copenhagen |conference=Eighth International Congress of neo-Latin Studies}}</ref>

==== Norwegian ====
In [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], the circumflex differentiates ''fôr'' "lining, fodder" from the preposition ''for''. From a historical point of view, the circumflex also indicates that the word used to be spelled with the letter ''[[ð]]'' in [[Old Norse language|Old Norse]]{{spaced ndash}}for example, ''fôr'' is derived from  ''fóðr'', ''lêr'' 'leather' from ''leðr'', and ''vêr'' "weather, ram" from ''veðr'' (both ''lêr'' and ''vêr'' only occur in the [[Nynorsk]] spelling; in [[Bokmål]] these words are spelled ''lær'' and ''vær''). After the ''ð'' disappeared, it was replaced by a ''[[d]]'' (''fodr, vedr'').

==== Portuguese ====
Circumflexes are used in many common words of the language, such as the name of the language, ''português''. Usually, ''â, ê'' and ''ô'' appear before nasals (''m'' and ''n'') in [[proparoxytone]] words, like ''higiênico'' but in many cases in European Portuguese ''e'' and ''o'' will be marked with an acute accent (e.g. ''higiénico'') since the vowel quality is open (ɛ or ɔ) in this standard variety. In early literacy classes in school, it is commonly nicknamed ''chapéu'' (hat).

====Welsh====
{{main|Welsh orthography#Diacritics}}
The circumflex (ˆ) is mostly used to mark [[vowel length|long vowels]], so ''â, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ'' are always long. However, not all long vowels are marked with a circumflex, so the letters ''a, e, i, o, u, w, y'' with no circumflex do not necessarily represent short vowels.