Diacritics

What are those funny

little marks on some
letters, and what do
they sound like?
It turns out that the answers to those questions are quite
complex. The information below is mostly accurate in most
cases, but given there are hundreds of languages that use
diacritics, pronunciation does vary widely.

Diacritics used in tonal languages (languages where the

meaning of a word depends on how it’s pronounced), like
Vietnamese, Cantonese, Zulu, and Navajo.

Diacritics used in English.

Say uh for ą
Breve. Used in
English to sound
a short a. It gets
complex when used
in Vietnamese: ą is
the second letter of
the alphabet and
FDQEHVRXQGHGÀYH
different ways, using
ÀYHRWKHUGLDFULWLFV
(ϊ,ψ, ώ, ό, and ϐ). Say oa in oar
for å
Ring. Most
commonly used
in Scandinavian
languages for long
vowels, and often
as a letter in its own
right, rather than a
diacritic. Say eel for
ål, and hair for hår.
Say a
dipping e
for ϔ
Hook above. In
tonal languages
like Vietnamese,
a hook above a
vowel sounds a
dipping* vowel. Say an, but
leave the n
off, for ã
* Dipping means to make
a descending sound, Tilde. When placed
ÀQLVKLQJORZHUWKDQ over a vowel, it
you started. means to nasalise*
that vowel. Over an
n, it means to sound
a y immediately after
the n – as in piñata.
Like Ah
Acute accent. Used * Sounds made out of
in English to show
your nose rather than
words borrowed from
your mouth.
other languages (like
café), and to show a
stressed vowel.
Say a falling-
rising a for ˊ
Caron, wedge, or
LQYHUWHGFLUFXPÁH[
Used above vowels
in transliterations* of
tonal languages to
sound a falling-rising
tone (like Pinyin in
Chinese), or a rising
tone (as in Thai).

Say Aaa
Macron. Used * Transliteration means
to make a letter to convert a text from one
last longer. writing system to another.

&LUFXPÁH[ Used
as a longer vowel in
French and Welsh,
and as a higher tone
in Vietnamese. Also,
â is a letter in its own
right in a number
of languages.
Say -ed as
a separate
syllable in
lookèd
Grave accent. Used
in Old English to
pronounce a vowel
that’s usually left
VLOHQWRIWHQWRÀW
the timing of a song
or poem. Dot above. A dot
above is used in
many languages for
different purposes.
For example, in Irish,
it means to add
Say pre empt an h after a letter
(although not for the
for preëmpt letter a).
Diaeresis or
umlaut. Used to
distinguish between
syllables, especially
when two vowels are
next to each other
– as in coöperate.
In German, umlaut
means change the
sound around, often
swapping another
vowel for an e.

Say a nasal a
for ć
Ogonek. Mistaken
for a cedilla (which
is its mirror image)
by Apple’s Character
Viewer, an ogonek
is used in Polish and
Lithuanian languages
for nasalised vowels.
Say a low
and falling
lower a for κ
Dot below. Used
only in Vietnamese
as a glottalised*
falling contour –
which means to start
low and fall lower
in tone.

Cedilla. Found under

* Like ‘h’ in English,
some letters (but
sounds that are made
not a), the cedilla is
by your glottis, or used in English for
vocal cords. words borrowed from
other languages,
like façade.

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Researched from Wikipedia.
Week #2 20100723