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{{Diacritical marks}}
{{Diacritical marks}}
A '''diacritical mark''' or '''diacritic''', sometimes called an '''accent mark''', is a [[mark]] added to a [[letter (alphabet)|letter]] to alter a [[word]]'s pronunciation (ie. [[vowel mark]]s) or to distinguish between similar words. The word derives from the [[Greek language|Greek]] word διακριτικός (diakritikos, ''distinguishing''). Note that ''diacritic'' is a noun and ''diacritical'' is the corresponding adjective.
A '''diacritical mark''' or '''diacritic''', sometimes called an '''accent mark''', is a [[mark]] added to a [[letter (alphabet)|letter]] to alter a [[word]]'s pronunciation (ie. [[vowel mark]]s) or to distinguish between similar words. The word derives from the [[Greek language|Greek]] word διακριτικός (diakritikos, ''distinguishing''). Note that ''diacritic'' is a [[noun]] and ''diacritical'' is the corresponding [[adjective]].


A diacritical mark can appear above or below the letter to which it is added, or in some other position; however, note that not all such marks are diacritical. For example, in [[English language|English]], the [[tittle]] (dot) on the letters ''i'' and ''j'' is not a diacritical mark, but rather part of the letter itself. Further, a mark may be diacritical in one language, but not in another; for example, in [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]], ''u'' and ''ü'' are considered the same letter, while in [[German language|German]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]] and [[Azeri language|Azeri]] they are considered to be separate letters.
A diacritical mark can appear above or below the letter to which it is added, or in some other position; however, note that not all such marks are diacritical. For example, in [[English language|English]], the [[tittle]] (dot) on the letters ''i'' and ''j'' is not a diacritical mark, but rather part of the letter itself. Further, a mark may be diacritical in one language, but not in another; for example, in [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]], ''u'' and ''ü'' are considered the same letter, while in [[German language|German]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]] and [[Azeri language|Azeri]] they are considered to be separate letters.

Revision as of 22:16, 22 August 2006

A diacritical mark or diacritic, sometimes called an accent mark, is a mark added to a letter to alter a word's pronunciation (ie. vowel marks) or to distinguish between similar words. The word derives from the Greek word διακριτικός (diakritikos, distinguishing). Note that diacritic is a noun and diacritical is the corresponding adjective.

A diacritical mark can appear above or below the letter to which it is added, or in some other position; however, note that not all such marks are diacritical. For example, in English, the tittle (dot) on the letters i and j is not a diacritical mark, but rather part of the letter itself. Further, a mark may be diacritical in one language, but not in another; for example, in Catalan, Portuguese and Spanish, u and ü are considered the same letter, while in German, Estonian, Hungarian, Turkish and Azeri they are considered to be separate letters.

The main usage of a diacritic is to change the phonetic meaning of the letter, but the term is also used in a more general sense of changing the meaning of the letter or even the whole word. Examples are writing numerals in numeral systems, such as early Greek numerals and marking abbreviations with the titlo in old Slavic texts.

Types of diacritic

Marks that are sometimes diacritics, but also have other uses, are:

  • ( | ) bar through the basic letter
  • ( , ) comma
  • ( ~ ) tilde
  • (  ҃ ) titlo, used to indicate abbreviation in the early Cyrillic alphabet
  • ( ' ) apostrophe
  • ( : ) colon, used to attach native affixes (such as case markers) to foreign words and abbreviations
  • ( - ) hyphen - in English, hyphens can be used to break words between syllables, to resolve ambiguities in pronunciation:
    • repair (fix) compared to re-pair (pair again).
    • Kuringgai becomes Ku-ring-gai.

Diacritic usage

  • Catalan has grave, acute, cedilla and diaeresis.
  • Czech has acute, caron and ring.
  • Dutch uses diaeresis. For example in ruïne it means that the u and i are separately pronounced in their usual way, and not in the way that the combination ui is normally pronounced. Thus it works as a separation sign and not as an indication for an alternative version of the i. Diacritics can be used for emphasis (érg koud for very cold) or for disambiguation between a number of words that are spelled the same when context doesn't indicate the correct meaning (één appel = one apple, een appel = an apple; vóórkomen = to occur, voorkómen = to prevent). Grave and acute accents are used on a very small number of words, mostly loanwords.
  • In Estonian, carons in š or ž may appear only in foreign proper names and loanwords, but may be also substituted with sh or zh in some texts. Apostrophe can be used in declension of some foreign names to separate the stem from any declension endings; e.g., Monet' or Monet'sse for the genitive case and illative case, respectively, for (the famous painter) "Monet".
  • French uses grave, acute, circumflex, cedilla and diaeresis. However, not all diacritics occur on all vowels in French:
    • Acute (accent aigu) only occurs on e (é, pronounced /e/)
    • Grave (accent grave) occurs on e (è, pronounced /ε/), a (à), and u (ù)
    • Circumflex (accent circonflexe) occurs on all vowels: e (ê, pronounced /ε/), a (â, pronounced /α/), i (î), o (ô, pronounced /o/), and u (û; if occurring in the combination eû, pronounced /ø/)
    • Cedilla (cédille) is used only under the c (ç, pronounced /s/). It is used in cases in which a c is soft before a, o, or u, such as ça (pronounced /sa/, not /ka/).
    • Diaeresis (tréma) occurs on e (ë), i (ï), u (ü), and y (ÿ). The diaeresis only occurs on y in a few proper nouns, including Louÿs and L'Haÿ-les-Roses. The mark's function is to indicate that the vowel is pronounced separately from the one just before it.
    • Diacritics are sometimes omitted from capitalized letters, especially in France.
    • Not all French diacritics affect pronunciation. However, all cases in which they do have been noted in the foregoing.
  • Finnish uses a colon to decline loanwords and abbreviations; e.g., USA:han for the illative case of "USA". Also characters ä and ö are part of the Finnish alphabet (a and o with Umlaut).
  • German has the Umlaut (¨). This can be used over a, o, or u to indicate vowel modification. For instance: Ofen (/'o:fən/); Öfen (/'ø:fən/), which in this case makes the difference between singular and plural (“oven”/“ovens”). The sign originated in a superscript e; a handwritten Sütterlin e resembles two parallel vertical lines, like an umlaut.
  • Irish uses acute accent to indicate that the vowel is long. It is known as síneadh fada (long sign) or simply fada (long) in Irish.
  • Italian uses acute and grave to indicate irregular stress patterns (as in più, which would otherwise be stressed on the i) and to distinguish words that would otherwise be homographs (such as te ["you"] and tè ["tea"]). In many words, acute and grave are interchangeable.
  • Lithuanian uses the acute, grave and tilde in dictionaries to indicate stress types in the language's pitch stress system. In general usage, where letters appear with the caron (č, š and ž) they are considered as separate letters from c, s or z and collated separately; letters with the ogonek (ą, ę, į and ų), the macron (ū) and the superdot (ė) are considered as separate letters as well, but not given a unique collation order.
  • Many Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet have ogonek and bar.
  • Slovak has acute, caron, circumflex (only above o) and diaresis (only above a).
  • Spanish uses acute, diaeresis and tilde. Acute is used on a vowel in a stressed syllable in words with irregular stress patterns. It can also be used to "break" a diphthong as in tío (pronounced /'tio/, and not /tjo/ as it would be without the accent). Moreover, the acute can be used to distinguish words that otherwise are spelt alike, such as si ( = "if") and sí ( = "yes"), and also to distinguish interrogative and relative words otherwise spelt alike, such as donde/¿dónde? ( = "where") or como/¿cómo? ( = "as"/"how?"). Tilde is used on n, forming a separate letter (ñ) in the Spanish alphabet. Diaeresis is used only over u (ü) so that it is pronounced /w/ in the combinations gue and gui (where u is normally silent), for example ambigüedad. In poetry, diaeresis may be used on i and u as a way to force hiatus.
  • Swedish sometimes uses the acute accent, exclusively over the letter e to show non-standard stress, like in kafé or resumé. Usage isn't mandatory, though.
  • Tagalog uses a hyphen after a consonant to indicate a syllable break (nag-alis /nag·a·lís/ as opposed to nagalis /na·ga·lís/). A hyphen is not necessary between two vowels, vowels being distinctly pronounced in Tagalog (tauhan /ta·ú·han/, buo /bu·ô/).
  • Tamil does not have any diacritics in itself, but uses the Western numerals 2, 3 and 4 as diacritics to represent aspirated, voiced, and voiced-aspirated consonants when the Tamil script is used to write to long passages in Sanskrit.
  • Vietnamese uses acute (dấu sắc), grave (dấu huyền), tilde (dấu ngã), dot below (dấu nặng) and hook (dấu hỏi) on vowels as tone indicators.
  • Welsh uses the circumflex, diaeresis, acute and grave accents on its seven vowels a, e, i, o, u, w, y. The most common is the circumflex (which it calls to bach, meaning "little roof") to denote a long vowel, usually to disambiguate it from a similar word with a short vowel. The rarer grave accent has the opposite effect, shortening vowel sounds which would usually be pronounced long. The acute accent and diaeresis are also occasionally used, to denote stress and vowel separation respectively. The w-circumflex and y-circumflex are among the most common accented characters in Welsh, but unusual in languages generally, and were until recently very hard to obtain in word-processed and HTML documents.
  • Modern English mostly does not have diacritics. The letter è is an exception, used to modify the pronunciation of words ending in -ed within poetry and songs, though this is considered, by some, to be archaic. Occasionally, especially in older literature, and notably in The New Yorker's house style, the diaeresis is used (as in Dutch) to indicate a syllable break. For instance, in "coördinate" it indicates that the second "o" starts a new syllable. The letter é is occasionally used as well, typically in loanwords such as "café".

Non-diacritic usage

  • Esperanto has a separate letter which is a u with a breve over it, and letters which are c, g, h, j and s with the circumflex over them. These are not diacritic marks, but necessary parts of entirely separate letters.
  • Estonian has a distinct letter õ which contains a non-diacritical tilde. Estonian "dotted vowels" ä, ö, ü are similar to German, but these are also distinct letters, not containing umlauts. All four of these letters have their own place in the alphabet (between w and x).
  • Faroese and Icelandic use acute accents, digraphs, and other special letters. All are considered separate letters, and have their own place in the alphabet:
    • Faroese: á, ð, í, ó, ú, ý, æ and ø
    • Icelandic: á, ð, é, í, ó, ú, ý, æ, ö and þ
  • Finnish uses dotted vowels (ä and ö) similar to in Swedish, and å, š and ž in foreign names and loanwords; they are considered distinct letters and collate after z.
  • Hungarian uses the acute and double acute accent (unique to Hungarian): áéíóú and őű. The diacritic marks over the letters ö and ü are not umlauts. The acute accent indicates the long form of a vowel, while the double acute performs the same function for ö and ü. Both long and short forms of the vowels are listed separately in the Hungarian alphabet.
  • Maltese uses a C, G, and Z with a dot over them (Ċ, Ġ, Ż), and also has a H with an extra horizontal bar. For upper case H, the extra bar is written slightly above the usual bar. For lower case H, the extra bar is written crossing the vertical, like a t, and not touching the lower part (Ħ, ħ). The above letters are considered separate letters, not dicritics. Maltese sometimes uses diacritics on some vowels to indicate stress or long vowels, however this usage is restricted to pronunciation assistance in dictionaries. The letter 'c' without a dot has fallen out of use due to redundancy. 'ċ' is pronounced like the English 'ch' and 'k' is used as a hard c as in 'cat'. The Maltese Z is pronounced like a 'ts' (Zokkor (sugar) is pronounced 'tsoh-kor') while 'ż' is closer to the English 'z' as in 'żarbun (shoe), pronounced 'zahr-boon'. 'G' is a hard 'g' sound, pronounced like the 'g' in the English word 'sugar' while 'ġ' is a soft 'g' as in 'ġobon' (cheese), pronounced 'job-ohn'.
  • Romanian uses a breve on the letter a (ă) to indicate the sound schwa (/ə/), as well as a circumflex over the letters a (â) and i (î) for the sound /ɨ/. Romanian also writes a comma below the letters s (ș) and t (ț) to represent the sounds /ʃ/ and /ʦ/, respectively.
  • Among the Scandinavian languages, Danish and Norwegian have long used ash (æ, actually a ligature) and o-slash (ø), but have more recently incorporated a-ring (å) after Swedish example. Historically the å has developed from a ligature by writing a small a on top of the letter a; if an å character is unavailable, some Scandinavian languages allow the substitution of a doubled a. The Scandinavian languages collate these letters after z, but have different collation standards. In Swedish, the order å, ä, ö is used, while Danish and Norwegian follow the order æ, ø, å instead.
  • Swedish uses characters identical to a-diaeresis (ä) and o-diaeresis (ö) in the place of ash and o-slash in addition to the a-circle (å). Historically the diaresis for the Swedish letters ä and ö, like the German umlaut, has developed from a small gothic e written on top of the letters.
  • Turkish uses a G with a breve (Ğ), two letters with a diaeresis (Ö and Ü, representing two rounded front vowels), two letters with a cedilla (Ç and Ş, representing the affricates /tʃ/ and /ʃ/), and also possesses a dotted capital İ (and a dotless lowercase ı representing a high unrounded back vowel). In Turkish each of these are separate letters, rather than versions of other letters, where dotted capital İ and lower case i are the same letter, as are dotless capital I and lowercase ı. Typographically, Ç and Ş are often rendered with a subdot, as in Ṣ; when a hook is used, it tends to have more a comma shape than the usual cedilla. See also Turkish alphabet.

In all these cases they are not seen as additional marks over the vowel, but are actually a necessary part of these characters, as they represent entirely different sounds to the basic forms.

  • Cyrillic alphabets
    • Belarusian has a letter ў.
    • Russian has the letter ё, usually replaced in print by е, although it has a different pronunciation. Ё is still used in children's books and in handwriting. A minimal pair is все (vse, "all" pl.) and всё (vsio, "everything" n. sg.).
    • Bulgarian, Russian and Ukrainian have the letter й.
    • Ukrainian also has the letter ï.
    • Acute accents are also used in Slavic language dictionaries and textbooks to indicate lexical stress, placed over the vowel of the stressed syllable. This can also serve to disambiguate meaning (e.g., in Russian писа́ть (pisát) means "to write", but пи́сать (písat) means "to piss").

Non-alphabetic scripts

Some non-alphabetic scripts also employ symbols that function essentially as diacritics.

  • Non-pure abjads (such as Hebrew and Arabic script) and abugidas use diacritics for denoting vowels. Hebrew and Arabic also indicate consonant doubling and change with diacritics; Hebrew and Devanagari use them for foreign sounds. Devanagari and related abugidas also use a diacritical mark called a virama to mark the absence of a vowel.
  • The Thai language has its own version of diacritics.

Alphabetization or collation

Different languages use different rules to put diacritic characters in alphabetical order. French treats letters with diacritical marks the same as the underlying letter for purposes of ordering and dictionaries. The same is true in German, and in cases where two words differ only by an umlaut, the word without it is sorted first in German dictionaries (eg "schon" and then "schön", or "fallen" and then "fällen"). However, when names are concerned (eg in phone books or in author catalogues in libraries), umlauts are often treated as combinations of the vowel with a suffixed 'e'; Austrian phone books now treat umlauts as separate letters (immediately following the underlying letter).

The Scandinavian languages, by contrast, treat the diacritic characters ä, ö and å as new and separate letters of the alphabet, and sort them after z. Usually ä is sorted as equal to æ (ash) and ö is sorted as equal to ø (o-slash). Also, aa, when used as an alternative spelling to å, is sorted as such. Other diacritically marked letters are treated as variants of the underlying letter, with the exception that ü is frequently sorted as y.

Other languages treat diacritically marked letters as variants of the underlying letter, but alphabetize them following the unmarked letter. In Spanish ñ is considered a new letter different from n and placed between n and o, however, acute accents and diaeresis are ignored.

The technical term for alphabetization is collation.

See also: Alphabet, Latin alphabet

Generation with computers

Modern computer technology was developed mostly in the English speaking countries, so data formats, keyboard layouts, etc. were developed with an English bias; a "simple" alphabet without diacritical marks. This has led to fears internationally that the marks and accents may become obsolete to facilitate the worldwide exchange of data. Efforts have been made to create domain names that extend further than the English alphabet: the internationalized domain names, example: "pokémon.com".

Depending on the keyboard layout, which differs amongst countries, it is more or less easy to enter letters with diacritics on computers and typewriters. Some have their own keys, some are created by first pressing the key with the diacritic mark followed by the letter to place it on. Such a key is sometimes referred to as a dead key, as it produces no output of its own, but modifies the output of the key pressed after it.

In modern Microsoft Windows operating systems, the keyboard layout US International allows one to type almost all diacritics directly: "+e gives ë, ~+o gives õ, etc. On Apple Macintosh computers, there are keyboard shortcuts for the most common diacritics; Option-e followed by a vowel places an acute accent, etc. Diacritics can be composed in most X Window System keyboard layouts.

On computers it is also a matter of available code pages, whether you can use certain diacritics. Unicode solves this problem by assigning every known character its own code; if this code is known most modern computer systems provide a method to input it. With Unicode it is also possible to combine diacritical marks with most characters.

See also

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