In phonetics, a diacritical mark is aglyph—or symbol—added to a letter that alters its sense, function, or pronunciation. It is also known as a diacritic or an accent mark. Adiacritical mark is a point, sign, or squiggle added or attached to a letter or character to indicate appropriate stress, special pronunciation, or unusual sounds not common in the Roman alphabet, according toL. KipWheeler, a professor at Carson-Newman University in Tennessee.
Purpose
While diacritical marks are more common in foreign languages, you do encounter them quite often in English. For example, diacritics are often used withcertain French loanwords,wordsthat are imported into onelanguagefrom another language. Café and clichéare loanwordsfrom French that contain a diacritical mark called an acute accent, which helps indicate how thefinaleis pronounced.
Diacritical marks are used in dozens of other foreign languages, includingAfrikaans, Arabic, Hebrew,Filipino, Finnish, Greek, Galician, Irish, Italian, Spanish, and Welsh. These marks can change not only the pronunciation but also the meaning of a word. One example in English is résumé or resumé versus resume. The first two terms are nouns that meancurriculum vitae, while the second is a verb meaning to return to or begin again.
Diacritical Marks in English
There are literally dozens of diacritical marks, but it is helpful to learn the basic diacritics in English, as well as their functions. Some of the marks and explanations are adapted from alist of diacritical markscreated by Professor Wheeler.
| Diacritical Mark | Purpose | Examples |
| Acute accent | Used with certain French loanwords | café, cliché |
| Apostrophe * | Indicates possession or the omission of a letter | children's, don't |
| Cedilla | Attached to the bottom of the letter c in French loanwords, indicating a soft c | façade |
| Circumflex accent | Indicates reduced primary stress | élevàtor ôperàtor |
| Diaeresis or Umlaut | Used with certain names and words as a guide to pronunciation | Chloë, Brontë, coöperate, naïve |
| Grave accent | Occasionally used in poetry to indicate that a normally silent vowel should be pronounced | learnèd |
| Macron or Stress Mark | A dictionary notation to signify "long" vowel sounds | pādā for payday |
| Tilde | In Spanish loan words, the tilde indicates a /y/ sound added to a consonant. | cañon or piña colada |
| Tilde | In Portuguese loanwords, the tilde indicates nasalized vowels. | São Paulo |
*Because marks of punctuation aren't added to letters, they're generally not regarded as diacritics. However, an exception is sometimes made for apostrophes.
Examples of Diacritics
Diacritical marks are plentiful in English-language articles and books. Writers andlexicographershave used the marks to great advantage over the years as these examples show:
Acute accent:"Feluda handed over the blueattaché casebefore he sat down."
- Satyajit Ray, "The Complete Adventures of Feluda"
Apostrophe: " 'Let's go down to my house and have some more fun,'Nancy said.
" 'Mother won't let us,' I said. 'It's too late now.'
" 'Don't bother her,' Nancy said."
- William Faulkner, "That Evening Sun Go Down." The American Mercury, 1931
Diaeresisor Umlaut:"Five young activists were voted into office, bringing political validation to a youth-driven movement dismissed by establishment elders as naïve, unschooled, and untenable."
- "Youthquake." Time,Oct. 6, 2016
Grave accent:"Margret stood in her chamber;
She'd sewn a silken seam.
She lookèd east an she lookèd west,
Anshe saw those woods grow green."
Tam Lin, "The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads"
Macron: "neighbor
nounneigh·bor\ˈnā-bər\"
- Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., 2009
Diacritics in Foreign Languages
As noted, there are literally dozens of diacritical marks in foreign languages. Wheeler gives these examples:
"Swedish and Norse words may also use the circle marking above certain vowels (å), and Czechoslovakian words may use the hacek(ˆ), a wedge-shaped symbol to indicate a "ch" sound as in English chill."
But unless you learn—or at least develop a proficiency—in those languages, you won't know how to read the words and letters altered by diacritical marks. You should, however, learn where these marks have become common in English—and where they have been dropped, notesShelley Townsend-Hudson in "The Christian Writer's Manual of Style." It can be tricky to know when to retain the diacritical marks, she says:
"The language is in flux. It is becoming more common, for example, to see the acute accent and diacritics being dropped from the wordscliché, café, andnaïve—thus,cliche, cafe, andnaive."
But dropping diacritical marks can change the meaning of a word. Townsend-Hudson argues that in many cases you should retain these crucial marks, particularly various accents, to ensure you are referring to the correct word, such aspâtéinstead ofpate: The first use meansa spread of finely chopped or pureed seasoned meat, while the second refers the crown of the head—certainly a great difference in meaning.
Diacritical marks are also important when you are referring to foreign place names, such asSão Paulo, Göttingen, andCórdobaand personal names such asSalvador Dalí, Molière, andKarel Čapek, she notes. Understanding diacritical marks is the key, then, to correctly identifying and even using many of the foreign words that have migrated into the English language.
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Nordquist, Richard. "Examples of Diacritical Marks." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/what-is-a-diacritic-mark-1690444.Nordquist, Richard. (2023, April 5). Examples of Diacritical Marks. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-diacritic-mark-1690444Nordquist, Richard. "Examples of Diacritical Marks." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-diacritic-mark-1690444 (accessed June 13, 2024).
