Diacritic 8439 225287734 2008-07-12T22:12:30Z SmackBot 433328 Date the maintenance tags or general fixes {{For|the academic journal|diacritics (journal)}} [[Image:Small a with acute.svg|thumb|40px|Example of a letter with a diacritic]] {{Diacritical marks}} A '''diacritic''' ({{IPA|/da͡iəˈkrɪtɪk/}}), or '''diacritical mark''', is a small sign added to a [[letter (alphabet)|letter]] to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from [[Greek language|Greek]] διακριτικός (''diakritikos'', "distinguishing"). "Diacritic" is both [[adjective]] and [[noun]], whereas "diacritical" is only an [[adjective]]. Some diacritical marks are often called '''accents'''; that applies to the grave and acute accents, but not the [[cedilla]]. A diacritical mark can appear above or below a letter or in some other position. Its main usage is to change the phonetic value of the letter to which it is added; but it may also be used to modify the pronunciation of a whole word or syllable, like the [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] marks of tonal languages, to distinguish between [[homonym|homograph]]s, to make abbreviations, such as the [[titlo]] in old [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] texts, or to change the meaning of a letter, such as denoting numerals in [[numeral system]]s like early [[Greek numerals]]. A letter which has been modified by a diacritic may be treated either as a new, distinct letter or as a letter-diacritic combination in [[orthography]] and [[collation]]. This varies from language to language and, in some cases, from symbol to symbol within a single language. == Types of diacritic == The types of diacritic include: * accent marks (thus called because the acute, the grave and the circumflex accent were originally used to indicate different types of [[pitch accent]]s, in the [[polytonic orthography]] of [[Greek language|Greek]]) ** (''' ´ ''') [[acute accent]] (Latin ''[[apex (diacritic)|apex]]'') **(''' ˋ ''') [[grave accent]] **(''' {{Unicode|ˆ}} ''') [[circumflex accent]] **(''' ˝ ''') [[double acute accent]] **('''  ̏ ''') [[double grave accent]] *(''' {{Unicode|˙}} '''), (''' . ''') [[Dot (diacritic)|dot]] (Indic ''[[anusvara]]'') ** [[tittle]], the dot used by default in the modern [[lowercase]] form of the Latin letters "i" and "j" **(''' ¨ ''') trema, diaeresis, or [[umlaut (diacritic)|umlaut]] sign *(''' ˚ ''') [[ring (diacritic)|ring]] (Czech ''kroužek'') * macron or line **(''' ¯ ''') [[macron]] (Hawaiian ''kahakō'') **(''' {{Unicode|ˍ}} ''') [[combining macron below|macron below]] * overlays **(''' | ''') [[bar (diacritic)|bar]] through the basic letter **(''' / ''') [[bar (diacritic)|slash]] through the basic letter **(''' – ''') [[bar (diacritic)|stroke]] through the basic letter * curves **(''' {{Unicode|ˇ}} ''' ) [[caron]] (Czech ''háček''), (Slovak ''mäkčeň''), **(''' ˘ ''') [[breve]] ** [[sicilicus]], a palaeographic diacritic similar to a caron or breve **(''' {{Unicode|˜}} ''') [[tilde]] **(''' {{Unicode| ҃}} ''') [[titlo]] * curls above **(''' ’ ''') [[apostrophe (punctuation)|apostrophe]] **(''' {{Unicode| ̛}} ''') [[hook (diacritic)|hook]] (Vietnamese ''dấu hỏi'') **(''' {{Unicode| ̉}} ''') [[horn (diacritic)|horn]] (Vietnamese ''dấu móc'') * curls below **(''' , ''') [[comma (punctuation)#Diacritical usage|comma]] **(''' ¸ ''') [[cedilla]] **(''' ˛ ''') [[ogonek]] *(''' {{Unicode|ː}} ''') [[colon (punctuation)|colon]], used in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] to mark [[vowel length|long vowels]]. Some of these marks are sometimes diacritics, but also have other uses: that applies to the tilde, dot, comma, titlo, apostrophe, bar, and colon. {{Latin alphabet}} == Diacritics specific to non-Latin alphabets == ===Arabic=== {{see|Arabic alphabet}} * (ء) [[Hamza]] * [[Harakat]] ** (ّ ) [[Shadda]] ===Greek=== {{see|Greek diacritics}} * [[Iota subscript]] *(''' {{Polytonic|ʽ}} ''') rough breathing, aspiration, ''[[spiritus asper]]'' * (''' {{Polytonic|ʼ}} ''') smooth (or soft) breathing, ''[[spiritus lenis]]'' Various combinations of accents with other diacritics and breathings. ===Hebrew=== {{see|Hebrew alphabet}} *[[Niqqud]] :* ( ּ ) [[Dagesh]] :* ( ּ ) [[Mappiq]] :* ( ׁ ) [[Shin (letter)|Shin dot (at top right corner)]] :* ( ׂ ) [[Shin (letter)|Sin dot (at top left corner)]] :* ( ְ ) Shva :* ( ֻ ) Kubutz :* ( ֹ ) Holam :* ( ָ ) Kamatz :* ( ַ ) Patakh :* ( ֶ ) Segol :* ( ֵ ) Tzeire :* ( ִ ) Hiriq *Other :* ( ׳ ) [[Geresh]] == Non-alphabetic scripts == Some non-alphabetic scripts also employ symbols that function essentially as diacritics. * Non-pure [[abjad]]s (such as [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] script) and [[abugida]]s use diacritics for denoting [[vowel]]s. 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. In addition, Devanagari uses the moon-dot ''[[chandrabindu]]'' (''' ँ '''). * The Japanese ''[[hiragana]]'' and ''[[katakana]]'' [[syllabary|syllabaries]] use the [[dakuten|''dakuten'' (゛) and ''handakuten'' (゜)]] symbols, also known as ''ten-ten'' and ''maru'', to indicate [[voiced consonant]]s. *[[Emoticons]] are commonly created with diacritic symbols, especially [[Japan]]ese emoticons on popular boards such as [[2chan]] and the many other imageboards suffixed -chan. == Alphabetization or collation == {{main|Collation}} Different languages use different rules to put diacritic characters in [[alphabet]]ical order. French treats letters with diacritical marks the same as the underlying letter for purposes of ordering and dictionaries. The Scandinavian languages, by contrast, treat the characters with diacritics ''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 letters modified by diacritics are treated as variants of the underlying letter, with the exception that ''ü'' is frequently sorted as ''y''. Languages that treat accented letters as variants of the underlying letter usually alphabetize words with such symbols immediately after similar unmarked words. For instance, in German where two words differ only by an umlaut, the word without it is sorted first in German dictionaries (e.g. ''schon'' and then ''schön'', or ''fallen'' and then ''fällen''). However, when names are concerned (e.g. 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 characters with umlauts as separate letters (immediately following the underlying vowel). In Spanish, the grapheme ''ñ'' is considered a new letter different from ''n'' and collated between ''n'' and ''o'', as it denotes a different sound from that of a plain ''n''. But the accented vowels ''á'', ''é'', ''í'', ''ó'', ''ú'' are not separated from the unaccented vowels ''a'', ''e'', ''i'', ''o'', ''u'' as the acute accent in Spanish only modifies [[stress (linguistics)|stress]] within the word, not the sound of a letter. For a comprehensive list of the collating orders in various languages, see [[Collating sequence]]. == Generation with computers == Modern computer technology was developed mostly in the English-speaking countries, so data formats, keyboard layouts, etc., were developed with a bias favoring English, a language with a "simple" alphabet, one without diacritical marks. This has led to fears internationally that the marks and accents may be made obsolete to facilitate the worldwide exchange of data.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Efforts have been made to create [[internationalized domain names]] that further extend the English alphabet (e.g., "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, Option-''u'' followed by a vowel gives an umlaut, option-''c'' gives a cedilla, etc. Diacritics can be [[Compose key|compose]]d in most [[X Window System]] keyboard layouts. On computers, the availability of [[code page]]s determines whether one 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 [[Unicode#Input methods|method to input it]]. With Unicode, it is also possible to [[Combining diacritical mark|combine diacritical marks]] with most characters. == Languages with letters containing diacritics == The following languages have letters which contain diacritics. ; Germanic and Celtic :* [[Danish alphabet|Danish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] uses additional characters like the ae ''æ'', o-slash ''ø'' and the a-circle ''å''. These letters are collated after ''z'', in the order ''æ, ø, å''. :* [[Faroese alphabet#Alphabet|Faroese]] uses acute accents, digraphs, and other special letters. All are considered separate letters and have their own place in the alphabet: ''á'', ''[[ð]]'', ''í'', ''ó'', ''ú'', ''ý'', ''æ'' and ''ø''. :* [[Icelandic alphabet|Icelandic]] uses acute accents, digraphs, and other special letters. All are considered separate letters, and have their own place in the alphabet: ''á'', ''ð'', ''é'', ''í'', ''ó'', ''ú'', ''ý'', ''[[æ]]'', ''ö'' and ''[[þ]]''. :* Among the [[Scandinavian languages]], [[Danish alphabet|Danish and Norwegian]] have long used [[Æ|ash]] (''æ'', actually a ligature) and [[Ø|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. Danish and Norwegian both follow the order ''æ, ø, å''. :* [[Swedish alphabet|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. These letters are collated after ''z'', in the order ''å, ä, ö''. ; Romance :* [[Galician language|Galician]]: as in Spanish, the character ''[[ñ]]'' is a letter and collated between ''n'' and ''o'' :* [[Romanian alphabet|Romanian]] uses a breve on the letter ''a'' (''ă'') to indicate the sound [[schwa]] {{IPA|/ə/}}, as well as a circumflex over the letters ''a'' (''â'') and ''i'' (''î'') for the sound {{IPA|/ɨ/}}. Romanian also writes a [[comma]] below the letters ''s'' (''{{Polytonic|ș}}'') and ''t'' (''{{Polytonic|ț}}'') to represent the sounds {{IPA|/ʃ/}} and {{IPA|/ʦ/}}, respectively. These characters are collated after their non-diacritic equivalent. :*[[Spanish alphabet|Spanish]]: the character ''[[ñ]]'' is considered a letter, and collated between ''n'' and ''o''. ; Slavic :* [[Bosnian alphabet|Bosnian]] and [[Croatian alphabet|Croatian]] have the symbols ''[[ć]]'', ''[[č]]'', ''[[đ]]'', ''[[š]]'' and ''[[ž]]'', which are considered separate letters and are listed as such in dictionaries and other contexts in which words are listed according to alphabetical order. [[Bosnian alphabet|Bosnian]] and [[Croatian alphabet|Croatian]] also have one [[digraph]] including a diacritic, ''[[dž]]'' which is also alphabetised independently, and follows ''[[d]]'' and precedes ''[[đ]]'' in the alphabetical order. The [[Serbian language|Serbian]] Latin alphabet contains the same letters, but the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet has no diacritics. :* The [[Czech alphabet]] contains 27 graphemes (letters) when written without diacritics and 42 graphemes when written including them. Czech uses the acute (á é í ó ú ý), the háček (č ď ě ň ř š ť ž), and for one letter (ů) the ring. :* [[Polish alphabet|Polish]] has the following letters: ''ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ź ż''. These are considered to be separate letters, each of them is placed in alphabet right after its Latin counterpart (i.e. ''ą'' between ''a'' and ''b''), ''ź'' and ''ż'' are placed after ''z'' in this order. :* The [[Slovak alphabet]] uses the acute (á é í ó ú ý ĺ ŕ), caron (č ď ľ ň š ť ž), umlaut (ä) and circumflex accent (ô). :* The [[Slovene alphabet]] has the symbols ''[[č]]'', ''[[š]]'' and ''[[ž]]'', which are considered separate letters and are listed as such in dictionaries and other contexts in which words are listed according to alphabetical order. ; Baltic :* [[Latvian alphabet|Latvian]] has the following letters: ''ā ē ī ū ŗ ļ ķ ņ ģ š ž č''. :* [[Lithuanian alphabet|Lithuanian]]. 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 [[anunaasika|superdot]] (''ė'') are considered as separate letters as well, but not given a unique collation order. ; Finno-Ugric :* [[Estonian alphabet|Estonian]] has a distinct letter ''[[õ]]'' which contains a tilde. Estonian "dotted vowels" ''ä'', ''ö'', ''ü'' are similar to German, but these are also distinct letters, not like German umlauted letters. All four have their own place in the alphabet, between ''w'' and ''x''. Carons in ''š'' or ''ž'' appear only in foreign proper names and [[loanword]]s. Also these are distinct letters, placed in the alphabet between ''s'' and ''t''. :* [[Finnish alphabet|Finnish]] uses dotted vowels (''ä'' and ''ö''). As in Swedish and Estonian, these are regarded as individual letters, rather than vowel + umlaut combinations (as happens in German). It also uses the characters ''å'', ''š'' and ''ž'' in foreign names and loanwords. In the Finnish alphabet, ''å'', ''ä'' and ''ö'' collate as separate letters after ''z'', the others as variants of their base letter. :* [[Hungarian alphabet|Hungarian]] uses the umlaut, the acute and double acute accent (unique to Hungarian): ''ö ü'', ''á é í ó ú'' and ''ő ű''. The acute accent indicates the long form of a vowel (in case of ''i/í'', ''o/ó'', ''u/ú'') while the double acute performs the same function for ''ö'' and ''ü''. The acute accent can also indicate a different sound (more open, like in case of ''a/á'', ''e/é''). Both long and short forms of the vowels are listed separately in the [[Hungarian alphabet]] but members of the pairs ''a/á, e/é, i/í, o/ó, ö/ő, u/ú'' and ''ü/ű'' are collated in dictionaries as the same letter. :* [[Livonian language|Livonian]] has the following letters: ''ā, ä, {{Unicode|ǟ}}, {{Unicode|ḑ}}, ē, ī, ļ, ņ, ō, {{Unicode|ȯ}}, {{Unicode|ȱ}}, õ, {{Unicode|ȭ}}, ŗ, š, {{Unicode|ț}}, ū, ž''. ; Turk :* [[Azerbaijani alphabet|Azerbaijani]] includes the distinct [[Turkish alphabet]] letters [[Ç]], [[Ğ]], [[Turkish dotted and dotless I|I, İ]], [[Ö]], [[Ş]] and [[Ü]]. :* [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]] includes the distinct [[Turkish alphabet]] letters [[Ç]], [[Ğ]], [[Turkish dotted and dotless I|I, İ]], [[Ö]], [[Ş]] and [[Ü]]. Unlike Standard Turkish (but like [[Cypriot Turkish]]), Crimean Tatar also has the letter [[Ñ]]. :* [[Gagauz alphabet|Gagauz]] includes the distinct [[Turkish alphabet]] letters [[Ç]], [[Ğ]], [[Turkish dotted and dotless I|I, İ]], [[Ö]], [[Ş]] and [[Ü]]. Unlike Turkish, Gagauz also has the letters [[Ä]], [[Ê]] and [[Ţ]]. [[Ţ]] is derived from the [[Romanian alphabet]] for the same sound. :* [[Turkish alphabet|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 ''[[S-cedilla|Ş]]'', representing the affricate {{IPA|/tʃ/}} and the fricative {{IPA|/ʃ/}}), and also possesses a dotted capital ''[[I-dot|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 [[Turkish dotted and dotless I|dotted]] capital ''İ'' and lower case ''i'' are the same letter, as are dotless capital ''I'' and lowercase ''ı''. [[Typeface|Typographically]], ''Ç'' and ''Ş'' are often rendered with a subdot, as in ''{{Unicode|Ṣ}}''; when a hook is used, it tends to have more a comma shape than the usual cedilla. The new [[Azerbaijani alphabet|Azerbaijani]], [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]], and [[Gagauz alphabet|Gagauz]] alphabets are based on the Turkish alphabet and its same diacriticized letters, with some additions. ; Other :*[[Albanian alphabet|Albanian]] has two special letters [[Ç]] and [[Ё]] upper and lowercase. They are placed next to the most similar letters in the alphabet, c and e correspondingly. :* [[Esperanto alphabet|Esperanto]] has the symbols ''[[ŭ]]'', ''[[ĉ]], [[ĝ]], [[ĥ]], [[ĵ]]'' and ''[[ŝ]]'', which are included in the alphabet, and considered separate letters. :* Hawaiian uses the kahakô or macron over vowels, although there is some disagreement over considering them as individual letters. The kahakô over a vowel can completely change the meaning of a word that is spelled the same but without the kahakô. :* [[Maltese alphabet|Maltese]] uses a C, G, and Z with a dot over them (Ċ, Ġ, Ż), and also has an H with an extra horizontal bar. For uppercase H, the extra bar is written slightly above the usual bar. For lowercase H, the extra bar is written crossing the vertical, like a ''t'', and not touching the lower part (Ħ, ħ). The above characters are considered separate letters. 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 digraph 'għ' (called ''għajn'' after the [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] letter name ''ʻayn'' for ع) is considered separate, and sometimes ordered after 'g', whilst in other volumes it is placed between 'n' and 'o' (the Latin letter 'o' originally evolved from the shape of [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] ''ʻayin'' which was traditionally collated after Phoenician ''nūn''). :* [[Vietnamese alphabet|Vietnamese]] uses the [[horn (diacritic)|horn diacritic]] for the letters ''ơ'' and ''ư''; the [[circumflex]] for the letters ''â'', ''ê'', and ''ô''; the [[breve]] for the letter ''ă''; and a bar through the letter ''đ''. ; [[Cyrillic alphabet]]s :*[[Belarusian alphabet|Belarusian]] has a letter ''[[U short|ў]]''. :*Belarusian, [[Bulgarian language#Alphabet|Bulgarian]], Russian and Ukrainian have the letter ''[[Short I|й]]''. :*Belarusian and [[Russian alphabet|Russian]] have the letter ''[[Yo (Cyrillic)|ё]]''. In Russian, this letter is usually replaced in print by ''[[E (Cyrillic)|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.). In Belarusian, ''ё'' is a distinct letter, and replacement by ''е'' is a mistake. :*[[Ukrainian alphabet|Ukrainian]] has the letter ''[[Yi (Cyrillic)|ï]]''. :*[[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] has the letters ''[[kje|ќ]]'' and ''[[gje|ѓ]]''. :* The acute accent above any vowel in Cyrillic alphabets is used in dictionaries, books for children and foreign learners to indicate the word stress, it also can be used for disambiguation of similarly spelled words with different lexical stresses. == Languages with diacritics that do not produce new letters == [[Image:Spanish orthography.jpg|300px|right|thumb|[[Blackboard]] used in [[Class (education)|class]] at [[Harvard University|Harvard]] shows [[student]]s' efforts at placing the [[ü]] and [[acute accent]] diacritic used in [[Spanish orthography]].]] The following is a list of languages with letter-diacritic combinations that are not considered independent letters. * [[Afrikaans]] uses diaeresis to mark vowels that are pronounced separately and not as one would expect where they occur together, for example ''voel'' (to feel) as opposed to ''voël'' (bird). The circumflex is used in ''ê, î, ô'' and ''û'' generally to indicate long [[Close-mid vowel|close-mid]], as opposed to [[Open-mid vowel|open-mid]] vowels, for example in the words ''wêreld'' (world) and ''môre'' (morning, tomorrow). The acute accent is used to add emphasis in the same way as underlining or writing in bold or italics in English, for example ''Dit is jóú boek'' (It is '''your''' book). The grave accent is used to distinguish between words that are different only in placement of the stress, for example ''appel'' (apple) and ''appèl'' (appeal) and in a few cases where it makes no difference to the pronunciation but distinguishes between homophones. The two most usual cases of the latter are the in the sayings ''òf... òf'' (either... or) and ''nòg... nòg'' (neither... nor) to distinguish them from ''of'' (or) and ''nog'' (again, still). *[[Aymara language|Aymara]] uses a diacritical horn over ''p, q, t, k, ch''. *[[Catalan alphabet|Catalan]] has the following composite characters: ''à, ç, é, è, í, ï, ó, ò, ú, ü, l·l''. The acute and the grave accent indicate [[stress (linguistics)|stress]] and [[vowel height]], the cedilla marks the result of a historical [[palatalization]], the diaeresis mark indicates either a [[hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]], or that the letter ''u'' is pronounced when the graphemes ''gü, qü'' are followed by ''e'' or ''i'', the [[interpunct]] (·) distinguishes the different values of ''ll/l·l''. *[[Czech alphabet|Czech]] has the following composite characters: ''á, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ť, ú, ů, ý''. *[[Dutch alphabet|Dutch]] uses the diaeresis. For example in ''ruïne'' it means that the ''u'' and the ''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. The ç also appears in some loanwords. *[[English alphabet|English]] is one of the few European languages that do not regularly use diacritical marks. Exceptions are unassimilated foreign loanwords, including borrowings from [[French language|French]] and increasingly [[Spanish language|Spanish]]; however, the diacritic is also often omitted from such words. Loanwords that frequently appear with the diacritic in English include ''café'', ''résumé'' (a usage that helps distinguish it from the verb ''resume,'' though the former is often miswritten ''resumé''), and ''naïveté'' (see ''[[List of English words with diacritics]]''). In older practice (and even among some orthographically conservative modern writers) one may see examples such as ''élite'' and ''rôle.'' English once used the diaeresis more often than not in words such as ''coöperate'' and ''zoölogy,'' but this practice has become far less common ([[The New Yorker]]'s [[house style]] is one of the few major publications to retain this feature, and various individual writers still use it). The acute and grave accents are occasionally used in poetry and lyrics: the acute to indicate stress overtly where it might be ambiguous (''rébel'' vs. ''rebél'') or nonstandard for metrical reasons (''caléndar''), the grave to indicate that an ordinarily silent or elided syllable is pronounced (''warnèd,'' ''parlìament''). In certain personal names such as ''Renée'' and ''Zoë,'' the diacritical marks are included more often than omitted. *[[Faroese alphabet|Faroese]]. Non-Faroese accented letters are not added to the Faroese alphabet. These include ''é'', ''ö'', ''ü'', ''å'' and recently also letters like ''š'', ''ł'', and ''ć''. *[[Finnish alphabet|Finnish]]. Carons in ''š'' and ''ž'' appear only in foreign proper names and [[loanwords]], but may be substituted with ''sh'' or ''zh'' if and only if it is technically impossible to produce accented letters in the medium. Contrary to Estonian, ''š'' and ''ž'' are not considered distinct letters in Finnish. *[[French alphabet|French]] uses the grave accent (''accent grave''), the acute accent (''accent aigu''), the circumflex (''accent circonflexe''), the cedilla (''cédille'') and the diaeresis (''tréma''). *[[Galician language|Galician]] vowels can bear a grave accent (''á, é, í, ó, ú'') to indicate stress or difference between two otherwise same written words (''é'', '(he/she) is' vs. ''e'', 'and'), but [[umlaut (diacritic)|trema]] is only used with ''ï'' and ''ü'' to show [[diaeresis]] in pronunciation. Only in foreign words Galician may use of another diacritics as ''ç'' (widely used in the Middle Age) ''ê'' or ''à''. *[[German alphabet|German]] uses the three so-called ''umlaut''s ''ä'', ''ö'' and ''ü''. These diacritics indicate vowel changes. For instance the word ''Ofen'' /'o:fən/ (English: oven) has the plural ''Öfen'' /'ø:fən/ (ovens). The sign originated in a superscript ''e''; a handwritten [[Sütterlin]] ''e'' resembles two parallel vertical lines, like an umlaut. - Besides, there exists the diacritic ''[[ß]]'', the so-called "Es-Zett"{{Fact|date=June 2008 |Need a cite. ß is not a diacritic.}}. In some positions, it is used instead of ''ss''. For example the verb ''essen'' /'ɛsn/ (to eat) has the past tense form ''aß'' /'aːs/ (ate). The sign originated from ancient German writing as well where there existed two different types of an ''s''. In Switzerland ''ß'' is not used and replaced by ''ss''. *[[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] has many various diacritic marks known as ''[[niqqud]]'' that are used above and below script to represent vowels. These must be distinguished from [[cantillation]], which are keys to pronunciation and syntax. *The [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] uses diacritic symbols and diacritic letters to indicate phonetic features or secondary articulations. *[[Irish alphabet|Irish]] uses acute accent to indicate that the vowel is [[vowel length|long]]. It is known as ''síneadh fada'' (long sign) or simply ''fada'' (long) in Irish. *[[Italian alphabet|Italian]] mainly has the [[acute accent|acute]] and the [[grave accent|grave]] (''à'', ''è''/''é'', ''ì'', ''ò''/''ó'', ''ù''). *[[Lithuanian alphabet|Lithuanian]] uses the [[Acute accent|acute]], [[Grave accent|grave]] and [[tilde]] in dictionaries to indicate stress types in the language's [[pitch accent]] system. *[[Maltese alphabet|Maltese]] sometimes uses diacritics on some vowels to indicate stress or long vowels, but this is restricted to pronunciation assistance in dictionaries. *[[Occitan alphabet|Occitan]] has the following composite characters: ''á, à, ç, é, è, í, ï, ó, ò, ú, ü, n·h, s·h''. The acute and the grave accent indicate [[stress (linguistics)|stress]] and [[vowel height]], the cedilla marks the result of a historical [[palatalization]], the diaeresis mark indicates either a [[hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]], or that the letter ''u'' is pronounced when the graphemes ''gü, qü'' are followed by ''e'' or ''i'', the [[interpunct]] (·) distinguishes the different values of ''nh/n·h'' and ''sh/s·h''. *[[Portuguese alphabet|Portuguese]] has the following composite characters: ''à, á, â, ã, ç, é, ê, í, ó, ô, õ, ú, ü''. The acute and the circumflex accent indicate stress and vowel height, the grave accent indicates the crasis, the tilde represents nasalization, and the cedilla marks the result of a historical palatalization. In [[Brazilian Portuguese]], the diaeresis mark indicates that the letter ''u'' is pronounced when the graphemes ''gü, qü'' are followed by ''e'' or ''i''. *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 (''pisáť'') means "to write", but пи́сать (''písať'') means "to piss"), or "бо́льшая часть" (the biggest part) vs "больша́я часть" (the big part). *[[Slovak alphabet|Slovak]] has the acute (á, é, í, ĺ, ó, ŕ, ú, ý), the caron (č, ď, dž, ľ, ň, š, ť, ž), the circumflex (only above ''o'' - ô) and the diaeresis (only above ''a'' - ä). *[[Spanish alphabet|Spanish]] uses the acute accent and the diaeresis. The acute is used on a vowel in a stressed syllable in words with irregular stress patterns. It can also be used to "break up" a [[diphthong]] as in ''tío'' (pronounced {{IPA|/'tio/}}, rather than {{IPA|/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 exclamative pronouns from homophones with a different grammatical function, such as ''donde/¿dónde?'' ("where"/"where?") or ''como/¿cómo?'' ("as"/"how?") The diaeresis is used only over ''u'' (''ü'') so that it be pronounced {{IPA|/w/}} in the combinations ''gue'' and ''gui'' (where ''u'' is normally silent), for example ''ambigüedad''. In poetry, the diaeresis may be used on ''i'' and ''u'' as a way to force a hiatus. Very rarely, the "dotted l" may also be found, especially in loanwords, in order to indicate that the letters "ll" should not be pronounced as the Castilian letter "elle," but rather, as the letter "ele," in much the way that a diaeresis might be used to "break" a diphthong in other languages. This is accent mark, however, derives from other Iberian languages.{{Fact|date=March 2007}} *[[Swedish alphabet|Swedish]] uses the [[acute accent]] to show non-standard stress, for example in ''kafé'' (café) and ''resumé'' (résumé). This occasionally helps resolve ambiguities, such as ''ide'' (hibernation) versus ''idé'' (idea). In these words, the acute accent is not optional. Some proper names use non-standard diacritics, such as [[Carolina Klüft]] and [[Staël von Holstein]]. For foreign loanwords the original accents are strongly recommended, unless the word has been infused into the language, in which case they are optional. Hence ''crème fraîche'' but ''ampere''. *[[Tamil alphabet|Tamil]] does not have any diacritics in itself, but uses the [[Arabic numerals|Hindu numerals]] 2, 3 and 4 as diacritics to represent aspirated, voiced, and voiced-aspirated consonants when the [[Tamil script]] is used to write long passages in Sanskrit. *[[Thai alphabet|Thai]] has its [[Thai alphabet#Diacritics|own system of diacritics]] derived from [[Indic]] numerals, which denote different [[tone (linguistics)|tones]]. *[[Vietnamese alphabet|Vietnamese]] uses the acute accent (''dấu sắc''), the grave accent (''dấu huyền''), the tilde (''dấu ngã''), the dot below (''dấu nặng'') and the hook (''dấu hỏi'') on vowels as [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]] indicators. *[[Welsh alphabet|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", or ''acen grom'' "crooked accent", or ''hirnod'' "long sign") 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 the ''y''-circumflex are among the most commonly accented characters in Welsh, but unusual in languages generally, and were until recently very hard to obtain in word-processed and HTML documents. == Transliteration == Several languages which are not written with the Roman alphabet are [[transliteration|transliterated]], or romanized, using diacritics. Examples: *[[Chinese language|Chinese]] has several [[Romanization of Chinese|romanization]]s that use the umlaut, but only on ''u'' (''ü''). In [[Hanyu Pinyin]], the four [[Tone (linguistics)|tones]] of [[Mandarin Chinese]] are denoted by the macron (First tone), acute (second tone), caron (third tone) and grave (Fourth tone) diacritics. Example: ''ā, á, ǎ, à''. *Romanized [[Japanese language|Japanese]] ([[Romaji]]) uses diacritics to mark long vowels. The [[Hepburn romanization]] system uses a [[macron]] to mark [[long vowels]], and the [[Kunrei-shiki]] and [[Nihon-shiki]] systems use a [[circumflex]]. *[[Sanskrit]], as well as many of its descendants, like [[Hindi]] and [[Bengali]], uses a [[lossless]] transliteration system for representing words in the Roman alphabet. This includes several letters with diacritical markings, such as horizontal lines above vowels (ā, ī, ū), dots above and below consonants (ṛ, ḥ, ṃ, ṇ, ṣ, ṭ, ḍ) as well as a few others (ś, ñ). *[[Arabic language|Arabic]] has several [[Arabic_romanization#Comparison_table|romanisation]]s, depending on the type of the application, region, intended audience, country, etc. many of them extensively use diacritics, e.g. some methods use a dot for rendering [[emphatic consonant]]s (ṣ, ṭ, ḍ, ẓ, ḥ). Macron is often used to render long vowels. š is often used for /ʃ/. ġ for /ɣ/. == See also == *[[Alphabets derived from the Latin]] *[[Latin alphabet]] *[[Collating sequence]] *[[Combining character]] *[[Heavy metal umlaut]] *[[List of English words with diacritics]] *[[List of Latin letters]] *[[List of U.S. cities with diacritics]] *[[Romanization]] *[[Typing accents]] *[[:Category:Latin-derived alphabets]] *[[:Category:Specific letter-diacritic combinations]] {{Typography terms}} == External links == *[http://www.unicode.org/ Unicode] *[http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/dia/diacritics-revised.htm Orthographic diacritics and multilingual computing, by J. C. Wells] *[http://www.elisanet.fi/mlang/strip.html Notes on the use of the diacritics, by Markus Lång] *[http://utilitymill.com/utility/Diacritics Marked up text to diacritics - online converter] *[http://diacritics.typo.cz Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents] *[http://www.tuxmagazine.com/node/1000044 Entering International Characters (in Linux, KDE)] *[http://www.adobe.com/type/pdfs/characcessmac.pdf Standard Character Set for Macintosh] PDF at Adobe.com *[http://www.starr.net/is/type/kbh.html Keyboard Help] — Learn how to create world language accent marks and other diacritics on a computer *[http://home.scarlet.be/zoetrope/multipad/index.htm Multipad] — A text editor which makes it easier to type diacritics. [[Category:Diacritics|*]] [[Category:Punctuation]] [[Category:Typography]] [[als:Diakritisches Zeichen]] [[ar:فتحة لاتينية]] [[ast:Diacríticu]] [[zh-min-nan:Phiat-im hû-hō]] [[br:Sinoù diakritek]] [[ca:Signe diacrític]] [[cs:Diakritické znaménko]] [[da:Accenttegn]] [[de:Diakritisches Zeichen]] [[es:Signo diacrítico]] [[eo:Diakrita signo]] [[fr:Diacritique]] [[gl:Diacrítico]] [[ko:발음 구별 기호]] [[ia:Signo diacritic]] [[it:Segno diacritico]] [[he:סימן דיאקריטי]] [[ht:Dyakritik]] [[lt:Diakritiniai ženklai]] [[hu:Diakritikus jel]] [[nl:Diakritisch teken]] [[ja:ダイアクリティカルマーク]] [[no:Diakritisk tegn]] [[nn:Aksentteikn]] [[pl:Znaki diakrytyczne]] [[pt:Diacrítico]] [[ro:Semn diacritic]] [[ru:Диакритический знак]] [[sk:Diakritické znamienko]] [[sh:Dijakritički znak]] [[fi:Tarke]] [[sv:Diakritiskt tecken]] [[tl:Tuldik]] [[tr:Diyakritik işaretler]] [[wa:Diyacritike]] [[zh:变音符号]]