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Ç is the only letter that was specifically placed on the Portuguese and Spanish keyboard as an independent key (French keyboard has ç, but not as an independent key).

The funny fact is that in Portuguese:

  • cassa sounds like caça - different from casa (that sounds like caza);
  • nassão sounds like nação;
  • pansa sounds like pança, notice that only one s is sufficient to express the ss sound when near the n: e.g. pensa (to think) ≠ pesa (to weight, with a z sound);
  • passo sounds like paço and passo already exists as a word.
  • possa sounds like poça and possa also exists already.
  • pessa sounds like peça.

So why was ç created?

stafusa
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Armfoot
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    If you guys are thinking of of following the french.SE pattern of closing cross language dupes (as we discussed on meta http://meta.portuguese.stackexchange.com/questions/36/perguntas-semelhantes-escritas-em-idiomas-distintos-devem-ser-consideradas-dup ), I think you should also take responsibility for translating answers (as Gilles said they do on french.SE). Personally, I prefer the german.SE approach (leaving them open). – Frank Jul 19 '15 at 13:51
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    The funny thing is that it was already decided that duplicates in another language wouldn't be considered duplicates. But it seems like they changed their mind.. – Yuuza Jul 20 '15 at 03:11
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  • "pansa sounds like pança" one "s" only
    • – Jorge B. Jul 20 '15 at 13:50
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    Voted to reopen: either 1. add translations to the other question and keep this one closed as dup, or 2. allow this one to be open but linked to the other question. Meta discussion: http://meta.portuguese.stackexchange.com/questions/36/perguntas-semelhantes-escritas-em-idiomas-distintos-devem-ser-consideradas-dup – ANeves Jul 20 '15 at 14:06
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    @JorgeB. nice catch! Edited just now. Thanks! – Armfoot Jul 20 '15 at 14:12
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    @ANeves Translation into English added to the other question’s question and answer alike. This question is therefore a clear duplicate. – tchrist Jul 20 '15 at 14:50