Diacritic

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

Related Topics:
Letter - Greek

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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 German, Catalan, Portuguese or Spanish, u and ü are considered the same letter, while in Estonian, Hungarian, Turkish or Azeri they are considered to be separate letters.

Related Topics:
English - Tittle - German - Catalan - Portuguese - Spanish - Estonian - Hungarian - Turkish - Azeri

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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.

Related Topics:
Numeral system - Greek numerals - Titlo - Slavic

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