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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 most probable because with most diacritics, that’s how you would spell them aloud.
The word would then be “j-a-l-a-p-e-n-tilde-o”?

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  • The names of English letters are already hard to understand in speech, even though everybody knows them. If you add strange words like tilde, macron, umlaut, circumflex, haček, acute, grave -- epecially if you pronounce them like the languages that use them (e.g, circonflexe) -- this does not look like a useful solution. Who is going to be listening to this and how much do they need to know precisely what symbol is used?
    – John Lawler
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 16:49
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    The tilde changes the consonant sound: ñ is not n. BUT: accent marks, for example, the circumflex in French does not change the vowel sound. And in Spanish, for example, an acute accent (caminó, he walked) does not change the sound of the vowel. So, it depends, is the answer.
    – Lambie
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 16:53
  • jalapeño -- "holta ah elle pay eh enyay oh" (But my Spanish is a little rusty)
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 17:43
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about the English language.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Mar 29, 2020 at 17:52

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