Diacritics are marks used to distinguish letters or characters in different languages, with various purposes such as accent, phonetic value, or distinguishing words. The most common types are acute and grave accents and macrons, but there are many others. They are found in nearly every language, some incorporating them into the alphabet while others use them for assimilating words or poetic purposes.
A diacritic is a mark, usually placed above, below, within, or next to a letter or character to distinguish it from surrounding characters. Its purpose varies with each language. The most common uses of a diacritic or diacritic are to denote accent, specify phonetic value, define a sound not in the regular alphabet, or distinguish the whole word from another with the same spelling. There are many types of diacritical marks, but the most common are acute and grave accents and the macron.
The acute accent – shown as ´ – is frequently used in Latin-based languages. Marks the stressed vowel in words and also serves to distinguish between homophones in languages such as Spanish.
Grave accents — represented as ` — typically denote secondary accents in many words. In some cases, mainly in the English language, it shows stress on a vowel where it is not normally pronounced. It is commonly used in Italian and Catalan to show primary stress.
Macron – o – usually show long vowels. Unlike most diacritics, macrons can appear above or below the letter. The popularity of macrons is constantly evolving, and today, in many languages, they are mostly used in dictionaries.
There are many other cases where a diacritic is used. A diacritic can completely change the sound of a letter such as how a tilde changes the “n” to also incorporate a “y” sound in piña. Apostrophes are occasionally accepted as diacritics, particularly when they indicate a missing letter as in the word “aren’t”. Umlaut marks are used in some nouns such as “Chloë” and in many words with double vowels to emphasize the separate pronunciations of the vowels.
Diacritics are found in nearly every language in the world, some incorporating them into the alphabet, while others, like English, only use them when assimilating words from other languages or for poetic purposes. In Hebrew niquud and Arabic harakat, the diacritic is used to show sounds that are not in the available alphabet, while Arabic sukūn uses it to show the absence of vowels. Some languages such as the Faroese and Icelandic languages use diacritics regularly and are incorporated into the alphabet. The Greek language uses diacritics to show when a letter is used as a number.
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