Definition: Rare in English, diacriticals are a common occurrence in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and other languages. A diacritical is an accent mark used on some characters to denote a specific pronounciation. For example, the acute diacritical over the letter e changes the pronunciation to more of a long a as in resumé and café.
Some of the more commonly seen diacriticals are:
- acute
- cedilla
- circumflex
- grave
- tilde
- umlaut
Also Known As: accents | accent marks
Examples:
resumé (acute), façade (cedilla), château (circumflex), chère (grave), señor (tilde), naïve (umlaut)
