CIRCUMFLEX

CIRCUMFLEX, in Grammar, an accent serving to note or distinguish a syllable of an intermediate sound between acute and grave, and generally somewhat long. The Greeks had three accents, the acute, the grave, and the circumflex, marked respectively thus, $\backslash acute\{a\}$, $\backslash grave\{a\}$, $\backslash circ$. The acute raises the voice, and the grave lowers it, while the circumflex is a kind of undulation of the voice between the two. It is seldom used among the moderns, except to show the omission of a letter, which makes the syllable long and open. Thus the French write pâte for paste; tête for teste; fumes for fumes, and the like. They formerly used the circumflex in the participles; some of their authors writing conneu, pen, others conné, pé, &c. The circumflex is not used in English.