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 a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

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 feed ...

(which is '' sicilis'' in Latin). The ancient sources say that during the time of the

Republic A republic () is a " state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...

it was placed above a

geminate consonant In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct fr ...

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 The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional entities * Apex (comics), a teenaged super villainess in the Marvel Universe * Ape-X, a super-intelligent ape in the Squadron Supreme universe *Apex, ...

. Fontaine suggests that

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, 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 g ...

alludes to the sicilicus in the prologue to ''

Menaechmi ''Menaechmi'', a Latin-language play, is often considered Plautus' greatest play. The title is sometimes translated as ''The Brothers Menaechmus'' or ''The Two Menaechmuses''. The ''Menaechmi'' is a comedy about mistaken identity, involving a ...

''. 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.

References

Lewis and Short Latin Lexicon

Notes

{{Navbox diacritical marks Latin-script diacritics Palaeography

See also

References

Notes