polandscammer

[stoic venture]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[slow carbon]

Most of the time they indicate pronunciation
Sometimes they're just there for historic reasons

But your question is like asking "what is the difference between T and D"
At a fundamental level they indicate a difference of pronunciation, even though in reality sometimes they might be pronounced the same

[vestal radish]

c is pronounced s if before an e or i
when you need a c to be pronounced s it's written ç

that's it

ça is short for cela that's why it's a c

don't say cela va tho lol

[compact vale]

So true, take for example forêt, it has some latin roots and was at some point forest. The accent marks the vanished s and slightly modifies the prononciation kind of like a soften forèt.

[normal onyx]

makes sense thank you

Merci guys

[fossil axle]

So any ê ô û or â is a remnants of a lost consonants?

I tbought it was merely a pronunciation thing

[vestal radish]

It's both

But yeah most of the time you're gonna see that lost s in other Romance langs or in English

Forest
Prestar

[grizzled flume]

Well it lengthens the vowel, actually

Belgian French still does this, at least in regional dialects

« croûte » and « toute » have the same vowel but the first is longer than the second

Examples of the disappearing consonants or merging vowels
an(i)ma -> âme [missing N]
forestis -> forêt [missing S]
isla -> île [missing S]
piquure -> piqûre [merging of two vowels]
Pentecoste -> Pentecôte [missing S]
crouste -> croûte [missing S]