|
Sponsored Links
accent
A diacritic (/da??'kr?t?k/), also called a diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from the Greek d?a???t???? (diakritikós, "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 marks of tonal languages, to distinguish between homographs, to make abbreviations, such as the titlo in old Slavic texts, or to change the meaning of a letter, such as denoting numerals in numeral systems 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.
|
Diacritic Subcategories
Diacritic Articles
|
|
