Questions tagged [diacritics]
Questions regarding glyphs that are added to letters, e.g. the acute accent (´) in résumé or the diaeresis (¨) in naïve.
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What's the standard rule for the use of hyphens and diaereses in words like 'reelect', 'reexamine', and 'cooperate'?
I found that diaeresis is used on the word reelection in the following sentence of the article titled “Rational Irrationality” in the New Yorker magazine (April 27).
This morning’s news that economic ...
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2
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Why is "sauté" spelled with an accent and "repartee" not?
Why are these words spelled differently? They have the same sound at the end, right?
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How to write Vietnamese names in English correctly? ("Việt Nam" to "Vietnam" or "Viet Nam"?)
Commonly, in writing, the country name in Vietnamese is Việt Nam, in English is Vietnam; its capital city name in Vietnamese is Hà Nội, in English is Hanoi; its largest city name in Vietnamese is ...
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Where should one place word division dots in "Schroedinger" (with "oe" instead of "ö")?
According to Merriam-Webster, the 'word division dots' for Schrödinger are placed like this: Schrö·ding·er.
However, some sources (mostly older ones), use the spelling Schroedinger, with "oe"...
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What accent can I put on "u" to make it sound like "you"? [closed]
I have a made up name, "Bunar," and I want the u to sound like you, rather than oo. Is there an accent I can put above u to tell readers to pronounce it this way?
edit: feel free to explain ...
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What is the symbol connecting the letters "c" and "t" called, and when did it go out of style?
I have become so used to the long 's' that I read it as quickly as if they were the standard short 's', but it took me awhile to stop seeing them as 'f's. Luckily the "ct" connection thing ...
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Why does English omit diacritics on foreign names?
Why does English omit diacritics from foreign names that still use the Latin alphabet? For example, why are the Czech tennis player Tomáš Berdych, the Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø, or the Polish ...
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How was the è in past-tense verbs pronounced?
How would Shakespeare have pronounced damnèd for example?
How about the end of Nurse's Song by Blake:
The little ones leapèd, and shoutèd, and laugh'd
And all the hills echoèd
How would he have ...
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1
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Can there be a circonflex on a "w" in Welsh? [closed]
Consider the page Wrexham Glyndŵr University. Why is there a circonflex on the w? Does this exist in Welsh spelling?
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Does the letter "é" exist or not in English? [duplicate]
When we write in English, what alphabet should be used to represent all the words of standard English?
Are ASCII codes enough to represent all the English words?
Say, the word "café" is it ...
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What does the grapheme 'm̃' (m with a diacritical tilde) mean in English? Was it in use?
In a historical English book published in 1875, the grapheme 'm̃' (m with a diacritical tilde) is used in the title.
Ye parish of Cam̃erwell :
a brief account of the parish of Camberwell : its ...
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What is the difference between a dieresis and an umlaut?
In my personal experience, many native speakers of U.S. English are familiar with the term "umlaut" as referring to the double dots above a letter, though they are not generally aware of its ...
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Accent marks on nouns [duplicate]
English does not use accent marks basically.
However, some foreign names and nouns (like Dalí, Gaudí, café, fiancé) contain accents symbols.
Then, the question is "is it ok to write without ...
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Accent Marks in English
Why doesn't the English language have accent marks?
I have been trying to understand the critical differences that are present between the English and Spanish language, however I just can not wrap my ...
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How should foreign words (with foreign characters) be written in English text?
This question is not about italicisation or how to construct plurals. I wonder what are general guidelines for writing foreign words based on a Latin alphabet in English text. I know that, for ...
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“She´s happy” vs “She's happy” vs “She’s happy” vs ...?
I’ve always wondered what the correct apostrophe is when using contractions. Should I use She´s happy or She's happy?
English´s a universal language.
English's a universal language.
Why do a lot of ...
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What does 'ü' mean in song titles?
In some song titles there is the letter 'ü', which isn't a letter in the English alphabet, but in the German. What does it mean? Is it some sort of emphasis?
An example for such a song title would ...
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Should you always use the accent in foreign words like "résumé"?
You can see in the aboutCV page of Stackoverflow Careers site that the word resumes is mentioned — not résumés or résumés.
What should be the common practice here?
What about other words like ...
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"Naïve" yet "naivety"?
I am used to spelling "naïve" thus - "naïve". I am also used to Microsoft Word automatically changing "naive" to "naïve". Hence, I was surprised when it didn't change "naivety" to "naïvety". I then ...
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“Zoe” or “Zoë”: which is the correct spelling? [closed]
I have a relation who has named their child Zoe, on the grounds that “in English we don’t use the dots”, but they pronounce it like the second version.
Of course I don’t want to argue that’s not the ...
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Diacritics and non-English letters in anglicized loan words: keep 'em, dump 'em, italicize the words, or what?
Take an expression like déjà vu. This is a French term which is frequently seen in English. In fact, it is included in English dictionaries. But it is often seen in English in a variety of forms:
...
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Pronouncing Diacritics Aloud [closed]
When pronouncing diacritics aloud, how would you say words with a tilde or macron?
For example, how would you spell jalapeño and/or Māori?
Would you say “n-tilde” and “a-macron”? I assume that’s ...
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Was the use of accents in -ed adjectives ever common-place? When were they first used in modern books?
The distinction between the words blessèd (/ˈblɛsəd/) and blessed (/blɛst/) (see Grammarbook) appears to be wearing thin in modern language, possibly due to reduced accent usage and its resultant lack ...
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English regarding the letter i being pronounced as ee
I don't have an answer but I sure have a question. What diacritic or accent is used when the letter i in a christian name (with no vowel either side of it) is supposed to be pronounced ee?
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1
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pronouncing -ó in poetry [duplicate]
Do you guys know how '-ó' is pronounced?
Context: The Windhover, Hopkins.
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall ...
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What is the name of this type of mark?
Is there a name for this mark? It sits below a letter as a means of showing an abbreviation. (In this case, Established abbreviated to Estd.)
I've seen it used in the form below in place of an ...
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1
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Diacritics or meaning difference for deja vu
Could be trivial but would like to know, what is the difference between
déjà vu and deja vu
Is it primarily the pronunciation difference or something else?
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What is the distinction between “role” and “rôle” [with a circumflex]?
One of our users, Stan Rogers, mentioned there was such a distinction, I think, when he answered a question and talked about how the orthography of foreign loan-words typically changes to conform with ...
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Is there an equivalent of diaeresis, but for consonants?
I know that diaeresis is used to show that two adjacent vowels are not a diphthong but should be pronounced separately, as in naïve or Zoë. Is there an equivalent mark or format in current ...
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1
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Why are diacritics used in words that apparently don't need them? Is it some sort of poetic license? [duplicate]
In his poem Spring and Fall, Gerard Manley Hopkins uses diacritics where one would normally not see them. Does anyone know why? Here is the poem:
Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove ...
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Are there any pairs of words like "beloved"/"belovèd", "learned"/"learnèd" that maintain a semantic difference to the present day?
When I first read Romeo and Juliet in high school, I remember being intrigued by pairs of words such as,
beloved/belovèd
and
learned/learnèd
where there's an accent grave on the 'e' of the ...
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How come in English we don't put symbols above our letters to change how they are pronounced? [duplicate]
How come in English we don't put symbols (things) above our letters to change how they are pronounced?
In French for example they have an acute accent ( ´ ) and grave ( ` ) and the cedilla that goes ...
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Are -èd adjectives still usèd words?
The distinction between the words blessèd (/ˈblɛsəd/) and blessed (/blɛst/) (see Grammarbook) appears to be wearing thin in modern language, possibly due to reduced accent usage and its resultant lack ...
0
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1
answer
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Using diacritics
I'm trying to figure out how to make the word Faro sound like Pharaoh as in the Egyptian Pharaoh instead of Far-Oh.
I'm looking into diacritics right now but they are confusing what I'm understanding ...
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Usage of diacritics in loanwords
I was told here that not using diacritics (specifically the cedilla) is bad usage for those who know — I assume — their diacritics.
Is that correct?
Is garcon a correct spelling, in English, of the ...
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What is the significance of the “ô” character in “rôle” in this work?
In this document from 1916, on the last line of the first page is the word rôle. If context matters, the entire sentence is:
As might readily be supposed, the control of the lactic acid ...
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Did Old English have diacritics?
I was learning English, which is my second language, when I came across the methinks word. I went to google to look up its meaning and usage, when to my surprise I saw this description:
Old English ...
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Why do some English speakers pronounce “fête” as “fate”?
In French, from whom we’ve borrowed the word, it’s /fɛt/ “fet”.
But if we pronounced it as if it were an English word after dropping the accent, it would be /fi:t/ “feet”.
Yet the pronunciation we ...
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0
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Should accents be used in French words when used in English? [duplicate]
In essays, or writing in general, is it more acceptable to include or leave out accents in French words (or even natively accented words in general)?
For example, would I say
The bread was served ...
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List of characters with diacritics accepted in English words [closed]
Some diacritics and special characters (like ligatures) are accepted in Contemporary English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_terms_with_diacritical_marks
Examples of English spellings: ...
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Why English does not have diacritics to distinguish between words with different meanings and pronunciations
It just occured to me that there are words in English that have two different meanings, two different pronunciations and are written exactly the same.
For example "present" can be interpreted as the ...
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"Accentuation signals" in English
Unlike in English speaking countries, here in Brazil it is very common to have names with accents. My own name is an example of it: Túlio.
In my case, in letter u we have an accentuation signal ...
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How to mark a stressed vowel in a text?
I write an article containing many Russian names and surnames, and sometimes it is important to specify which vowel is stressed (e.g. to distinguish Baskov from Baskov). In Russian we put an accent ...
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Is there a word for the letter that a diacritic is applied to?
If I am speaking about a letter that has a diacritical mark (e.g. 'á'), what word or phrase should I use to reference the base letter (e.g. 'a')? I'm looking for something a little more concise than "...
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Where does “ö” fall in alphabetical ordering?
Much to my surprise, I just learned that some English-language documents use the ö character. I need to know, when sorting words in an English-language document, where is ö placed?
before A?
...
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Is spelling still drifting?
If you look at texts from a few hundred years ago, they’re almost illegible, what with all the superfluous e’s and y’s running about, the long-S’s ( ſ ), and so on. Texts from 100 and 120 years ago ...
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What are these symbols called? ~ ` ^ [closed]
What can I call the following symbols?
~
`
^
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Using diacritics in new-formed words [duplicate]
There is some historical usage of diacritics in English, like naïve, résumé or even façade. I've been once told that these are used to mark a different spelling, and it may be used like in coöperative ...
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How to cite an author who spells his name inconsistently
I am writing a paper where I will cite several works by the Hungarian mathematician Gábor Szegő. Note that his surname includes the letter o with a double acute accent, NOT a letter o with umlaut ö. ...
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Usage of macrons in Latin loanwords
I know that diacritics are often retained in loanwords in formal writing (cf. naïveté), but I haven't seen this done with direct adaptation of Latin words; i.e., per se.
In Latin, per sē comes with a ...