View source for English terms with diacritical marks

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{{Infobox diacritic|char=ö
|name=Letter o with diaeresis
|unicode=}}
English rarely uses [[diacritics]], which are symbols indicating the modification of a letter's sound when spoken.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Gavin |last1= Ambrose |first2=Paul |last2=Harris  |title=The Fundamentals of Typography |isbn=9782940373451 |oclc=842600469 |date=2007 |page=92 |publisher= AVA |quote=Diacritical marks{{snd}} Diacritical marks are a range of accents and other symbols, which indicate that the sound of a letter is modified during pronunciation. These are rare in English but relatively common in other languages.}}</ref> Most of the affected words are in terms imported from other languages.<ref>{{cite book |first=Bryan A |last=Garner |author-link=Bryan A. Garner |title=The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style |date=2002 |page=100 |quote=Diacritical Marks, also known as 'diacritics', are orthographical characters that indicate a special phonetic quality for a given character. They occur mostly in foreign languages. But in English a fair number of imported terms have diacritical marks" }}</ref>  Certain diacritics are often called ''accents''. The only diacritic native to [[Modern English]] is the [[two dots (diacritic)|two dots]] (representing a [[vowel hiatus]]): its  usage has tended to fall off except in certain publications and particular cases.<ref name="Fowler">{{cite book | last = Burchfield | first = R.W. | title = Fowlers's Modern English Usage | edition = 3 | year = 1996 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 0-19-869126-2 | page = [https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/210 210] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/210 }}</ref>{{efn|The [[grave accent]] and the [[acute accent]] are sometimes seen on [[loan word]]s from other languages but these tend not to persist.<ref name="attaché">{{cite book | last = Burchfield | first = R.W. | title = Fowlers's Modern English Usage | edition = 3 | year = 1996 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 0-19-869126-2 | page = [https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/77 77] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/77 }}</ref> The grave accent is sometimes used to indicate non-standard stresses in poetry. }} 

[[Proper noun]]s are not generally counted as English terms except when accepted into the language as an [[eponym]] – such as [[Geiger–Müller tube]].

Unlike continental European languages, [[English orthography]] tends to use [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]]s (like "sh", "oo", and "ea") rather than diacritics to indicate more sounds than can be accommodated by the letters of the [[Latin alphabet]].  Unlike other systems (such as [[Spanish orthography]]) where the spelling indicates the pronunciation, English spelling is highly varied, and diacritics alone would be insufficient to make it reliably phonetic.  (See {{section link|English orthography|History}}.)

==Types of diacritical marks==
{{main|Diacritical marks}}
Though limited, the following diacritical marks in English may be encountered, particularly for marking in poetry:<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Lennard |title=The Poetry Handbook |date=2006 |page=57 |quote=Though limited in English the following may be encountered: acute (née) and grave (changèd) accents, modifying vowels or marking stresses; the circumflex (entrepôt), indicating omitted s; the diaeresis (naïf), preventing a diphthong, or umlaut (über), altering Germanic vowels; the cedilla (soupçon), softening c; the ''tittle'' (frō [sic]), indicating omitted n or m, or ''macron'' (statūs), lengthening vowels; the ''tilde'' (Señor), indicating palatalised n; and the breve (drŏll = 'drol', not 'drowle'), shortening vowels....}}</ref>
* the [[acute accent]] (née) and [[grave accent]] (English poetry marking, changèd), modifying vowels or marking stresses
* the [[circumflex]] (entrepôt), borrowed from French<!--the s was lost before it was borrowed into English--><!--indeed! This is an error... ([[talk]])-->
* the [[diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]] (Zoë), indicating a second syllable in two consecutive vowels
* the [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] (English poetry marking, lēad pronounced {{IPAc-en|l|iː|d}}, not {{IPAc-en|l|ɛ|d}}), lengthening vowels, as in Māori; or indicating omitted n or m (in pre-[[Modern English]], both in print and in handwriting).
* the [[breve]] (English poetry marking, drŏll pronounced {{IPAc-en|d|r|ɒ|l}}, not {{IPAc-en|d|r|oʊ|l}}), shortening vowels
* the [[Umlaut (diacritic)|umlaut]] ([[über]]), altering Germanic vowels
* the [[cedilla]] (soupçon, façade), in French, Portuguese and Catalan it is a softening c, indicating 's-' not 'k-' pronunciation
* the [[tilde]] (Señor, João), in Spanish indicating palatalised n, and Portuguese indicating nasal a and o (although in Spanish and most source languages, the tilde is not considered a diacritic over the letter n but rather as an integral part of the distinct letter [[ñ]]; in Portuguese the sound is represented by "nh")

Less common diacritics are occasionally found in English-language publications to preserve the native rendering of names of people, places, and culturally significant items such as food. For example, the [[caron]] in [[Karel Čapek]]; the [[Ring (diacritic)|ring]] in [[ Åland]]; or [[pho|''phở'']] with the Vietnamese letter [[Ơ|Ơ (O with horn)]] with [[hook above]].

===Special characters===
Some sources distinguish "diacritical marks" (marks upon standard letters in the [[English alphabet|A–Z]] 26-letter alphabet) from "special characters" (letters not marked but radically modified from the standard 26-letter alphabet) such as Old English and Icelandic [[eth]] (Ð, ð) and [[thorn (letter)|thorn]] (uppercase [[Þ]], lowercase [[þ]]), and [[Typographic ligature|ligature]]s such as Latin and Anglo-Saxon Æ (minuscule: æ), and German [[eszett]] (ß; final -ß, often -ss even in German and always in [[Swiss Standard German]]).<ref>{{cite book |first=Karen |last=Cheng |title=Designing Type |date=2006 |page=212 |quote=The eszett (also spelled esszett or referred to as a 'sharp s') is not a diacritic, but a ligature that occurs only in the German language. In general, the eszett signifies an 'ss' letter combination. The use of the eszett has declined significantly over ..."}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/opachelp/languages.html |title=Diacritics & Special Characters |publisher=University of North Carolina |quote=The following diacritics and special characters display: Diacritics: acute Á ; circumflex Â ; grave À ; tilde Ã ; umlaut Ä. Special characters: thorn, lowercase þ ; thorn, uppercase Þ.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Jukka K. |last=Korpela |title=Unicode Explained |date=2006 |page=195 |quote=Many other scripts use ligatures far more often. Ligatures as discussed here should not be confused with characters that originate from ligatures. For example, capital Latin letter "ae" ae (U+00E6) is an independent letter in Norwegian and ..}}</ref>

The reverse of "special characters" is when foreign digraphs, such as [[Ll (digraph)|Welsh ll]] in [[Llanelli]], [[IJ (digraph)|Dutch ij]], or [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|Croatian nj]] (same in [[Serbian language|Serbian]] and [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]]) are simply treated as two standard A–Z characters.

==Native English words==
In some cases, the diacritic is not borrowed from any foreign language but is purely of English origin. The second of two vowels in a [[Hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]] can be marked with a [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]] (or "tréma") – as in words such as ''coöperative'', ''daïs'' and ''reëlect'' – but its use has become less common, sometimes being replaced by the use of a hyphen.<ref name="auto">[http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19981209 diaeresis: December 9, 1998]. The Mavens' Word of the Day. [[Random House]].</ref> ''[[The New Yorker]]''<ref name="auto"/><ref>[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302254 Umlauts in English?]. General Questions. Straight Dope Message Board.</ref><ref name=curse>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/04/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis.html |date=2012-04-26 |first=Mary |last=Norris |title=The Curse of the Diaeresis |magazine=The New Yorker |quote=The special tool we use here at The New Yorker for punching out the two dots that we then center carefully over the second vowel in such words as "naïve" and "Laocoön" will be getting a workout this year, as the Democrats coöperate to reëlect the President.}}</ref> and ''[[MIT Technology Review]]'' under [[Jason Pontin]] have maintained such usage as house styles.

The diaeresis mark is also in rare cases used over a single vowel to show that it is pronounced separately (as in ''Brontë''). 

The acute and grave accents are occasionally used in poetry and lyrics: the acute to indicate stress overtly where it might be ambiguous (rébel vs. rebél) or nonstandard for metrical reasons (caléndar); the grave to indicate that an ordinarily silent or elided syllable is pronounced (warnèd, parlìament).

===In historical versions of English===

The [[Old English Latin alphabet]] began to replace the [[Anglo-Saxon runes|Runic alphabet]] in the 8th century, due to the influence of [[Hiberno-Scottish mission|Celtic Christian missionaries to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms]]. Orthography of Old English – which was entirely handwritten in its own time – was not well standardized, though it did not use all the Latin letters, and included several letters not present in the modern alphabet.  When reprinted in modern times, an [[overdot]] is occasionally used with two Latin letters to differentiate sounds for the reader:
* [[ċ]] is used for a voiceless palato-alveolar affricate /t͡ʃ/
* [[ġ]] for a palatal approximant /j/ (probably a voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ in the earliest texts)

Some modern printings also apply diacritics to vowels following the rules of [[Old Norse orthography#Normalized spelling|Old Norse normalized spelling]] developed in the 19th century.

In the Late [[Middle English]] period, the shape of the English letter [[þ]] (thorn), which was derived from the Runic alphabet, evolved in some handwritten and [[blackletter]] texts to resemble the Latin letter [[y]].  The þ shape survived into the era of printing presses only as far as the press of [[William Caxton]].  In later publications, thorn was represented by "y", or by [[ẏ]] to distinguish thorn from y.  By the end of the [[Early Modern English]] period, thorn had been completely replaced in contemporary usage by the [[Th (digraph)|digraph "th"]] (reviving a practice from early Old English), and the overdot was no longer needed outside of printings of very old texts.  The overdot is missing from the only surviving usage of a Y-shaped thorn, in the archaic stock phrase [[ye olde]] (from "þe olde", pronounced "the old", but "ye olde" is often misread and pronounced with the modern "y" sound).

== Words imported from other languages ==
[[Loanword]]s, or sometimes more precisely called borrowed words, have entered the English language from foreign languages by a process of naturalisation, or specifically [[anglicisation]], which is carried out mostly unconsciously (a similar process occurs in all other languages).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Davidson |first1=Misty |title=Borrowed Words–How English Borrows From Other Languages |url=https://commongroundinternational.com/learning-english/borrowed-words-english-languages/ |website=Common Ground International Language Services |access-date=2 March 2023 |date=11 April 2021}}</ref> During this process, there is a tendency to adapt the original word: this includes accents and other diacritics being dropped (for example French ''[[:wikt:hôtel|hôtel]]'' and French ''[[:wikt:rôle|rôle]]'' becoming "[[hotel]]" and "[[role]]" respectively in English, or French ''[[:wikt:à propos|à propos]]'', which lost both the accent and space to become English "[[:wikt:apropos|apropos]]").<ref>{{cite book |first=Bryan A. |last=Garner |title=Garner's Modern American Usage |date=2009 |page=248 |quote=Sometimes they survive indefinitely, but often they fall into disuse as terms are fully naturalised. Nobody today, for example, writes hôtel or rôle.}}</ref>

In many cases, imported words can be found in print in both their accented and unaccented versions. Since modern dictionaries are mostly descriptive and no longer [[Linguistic prescription|prescribe]] outdated forms, they increasingly list unaccented forms, though some dictionaries, such as the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], do not list the unaccented variants of particular words (e.g., [[:wikt:soupçon|soupçon]]).

Words that retain their accents often do so to help indicate pronunciation (e.g. ''[[frappé coffee|frappé]]'', ''[[naïve]]'', ''[[soufflé]]''), or to help distinguish them from an unaccented English word (e.g. ''[[exposé (journalism)|exposé]]'' vs. expose, ''[[résumé]]'' vs. resume, ''[[rosé]]'' vs. rose). Technical terms or those associated with specific fields (especially cooking or musical terms) are less likely to lose their accents (such as the [[French language|French]] ''[[crème brûlée]]'', ''[[étude]]'', ''[[façade]]'').

Some Spanish words with the Spanish letter ''[[ñ]]'' have been naturalised by substituting English ''ny'' (e.g., Spanish ''[[:wikt:cañón|cañón]]'' is now usually English ''[[canyon]]'', Spanish ''[[:wikt:piñón|piñón]]'' is now usually English ''[[pinyon pine]]''). Certain words, like ''[[piñata]]'', ''[[jalapeño]]'' and ''[[quinceañera]]'', are usually kept intact. In many instances the ''ñ'' is replaced with the plain letter ''[[n]]''. In words of German origin (e.g. doppelgänger), the letters with [[Umlaut (diacritic)|umlauts]] ''ä, ö, ü'' may be written ''ae, oe, ue''.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robbin D. |last=Knapp |title=German English Words: A Popular Dictionary of German Words Used in English |date=2005 |page=108 |quote=When German words with umlauts are assimilated into the English language, they sometimes keep their umlauts (e.g., doppelgänger, Flügelhorn, föhn, Der Freischütz, führer, jäger, kümmel, Künstlerroman, schweizerkäse, über-), but often are ...}}</ref> This could be seen in many newspapers during World War II, which printed ''Fuehrer'' for ''Führer''. However, today umlauts are usually either left out, with no ''e'' following the previous letter, or included as written in German (as in ''[[The New York Times]]'' or ''[[The Economist]]''). [[Zürich|Zurich]] is an exception since it is not a case of a "dropped umlaut", but is a genuine [[English exonym]], used also in French (from Latin ''Turicum'')—therefore it may be seen written without the umlaut even alongside other German and Swiss names that retain the umlaut.<ref>{{cite book |first=Diccon |last=Bewes |title=Swiss Watching |date=2012 |quote=In English, the most daring thing we do now is leave the umlaut off Zürich; not that any British ear would hear the difference anyway. For other official names, such as the houses of parliament, I have given only the German version, as it's the one used most often.}}</ref> The German letter [[ß]] is usually replaced in English by ‘ss’. This is seen in names such as [[Pascal Groß]].

===Accent-addition and accent-removal===
As words are naturalized into English, sometimes diacritics are added to imported words that originally did not have any, often to distinguish them from common English words or to otherwise assist in proper pronunciation. In the cases of [[yerba mate|maté]] from Spanish ''mate'' ({{IPAc-en|'|m|ɑː|t|eɪ}}; {{IPA|es|'mate|lang}}), animé from Japanese anime, and ''latté'' or even ''lattè'' from Italian ''[[latte]]'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɑː|t|eɪ}}; {{IPA|it|ˈlatte|-|It-latte.ogg}}), an accent on the final ''e'' indicates that the word is pronounced with {{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-a.ogg|eɪ}} at the end, rather than the ''e'' being silent. Examples of a partial removal include resumé (from the French résumé) and [[haček]] (from the Czech háček) because of the change in pronunciation of the initial vowels. Complete naturalization stripping all diacritics also has occurred, in words such as ''canyon'', from the Spanish ''cañón''. For accurate readings, some speech writers use diacritics to differentiate [[homograph]]s, such as ''lēad'' (pronounced like ''liːd'') and ''lĕad'' (pronounced like ''lɛd'').

In reverent and slightly poetic usage are commonly two -ed suffixed adjectives, if prefixed by a superlative, “learnèd” whereas rarely so “belovèd”. These are pronounced with two and three syllables respectively, unlike their related past participle versions. In courts, “my learnèd friend” is for any other specific representative at the bar, “the learnèd judge” for any cited judge and “this/the learnèd professor” or any other contributor’s title for anyone else cited who is legally highly qualified.  Many wedding ceremonies begin “Dearly belovèd”, whether correctly spelt this way or not.  This list expands to almost all -ed words in hymns and old rhymes if by chance helping with rhythm, emphasis or musical cadence.  The, to some clerics, mildly blasphemous, quiet, polite curse “the blessèd (object)” still features in most British dialects, it being more reserved to main liturgy as the blessèd Virgin Mary, our blessèd saviour and blessèd are the poor, they who mourn and others upon whom the New Testament confirms unconditional blessing.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

== Regional differences ==
===Canada===
{{See also|Canadian English|French language in Canada}}

In [[Canadian English]], words of French origin retain their orthography more often than in other English-speaking countries, such as the usage of [[é]] (e with acute) in [[café|''caf'''é''']], [[Montreal|Montr'''é'''al]], [[née|n'''é'''e]], [[Quebec|Qu'''é'''bec]], and [[Résumé|''r'''é'''sum'''é''''']]. This is due to the large influence afforded by French being one of [[Canada]]'s [[Official bilingualism in Canada|two official languages]] at the federal government level as well as at the provincial level in [[New Brunswick]] and [[Manitoba]], and the majority and sole official language in [[Québec]].

===New Zealand===
In [[New Zealand]] from the early 21st century, loan words in English that were assimilated from [[Māori language]] antecedents, have increasingly been replaced by the original Māori words, with their corresponding [[Macron (diacritic)|macrons]] (which indicate vowel length). This practice was adopted by the main newspaper chains in May 2018 to show respect for the official status of Maori.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/96578644/why-stuff-is-introducing-macrons-for-te-reo-maori-words?rm=m?rm=m|title=Why Stuff is introducing macrons for te reo Māori words|last=Crewdson|first=Patrick|date=11 September 2017|website=Stuff.co.nz|access-date=29 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/horowhenua-chronicle/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503788&objectid=12048013|title=Official language to receive our best efforts|date=9 May 2018|website=New Zealand Herald|access-date=29 May 2018|archive-date=7 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407170646/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/horowhenua-chronicle/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503788&objectid=12048013|url-status=dead}}</ref> This shift primarily reflects changing social attitudes as part of the ongoing [[Māori Renaissance]], and is sometimes followed in English usage outside New Zealand when writing about New Zealand topics. In some areas, such as the [[Waikato]], use of a macron is replaced by a double vowel instead (eg. {{lang|mi|waahine}} instead of {{lang|mi|wāhine}}), typically in areas where local Māori dialects prefer usage of a double vowel.<ref>{{cite web |title=Use of the double vowel in te reo Maaori at CM Health |url=https://www.countiesmanukau.health.nz/about-us/use-of-the-double-vowel-in-te-reo-maaori-at-cm-health/ |website=Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau |access-date=20 July 2023 |date=20 June 2023}}</ref> A diaeresis has sometimes been used (''wähine'') in place of a macron where the technical capacity to apply a macron diacritic is limited.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/matauranga-hangarau-information-technology/page-3|title=Mātauranga hangarau – information technology - Māori language on the internet|last=Keane|first=Basil|date=11 March 2010|website=Te Ara – Encyclopedia of New Zealand|access-date=29 May 2018}}</ref>

== Regional dialects ==
Diacritics have been employed in the orthographies of some regional dialects in England.
* Grave accents and macrons are used in some orthographies of [[Cumbrian dialect|Cumbrian]] in words such as ''steàn'' "stone", ''seùner'' "sooner" and ''pūnd'' "pound".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gibson |first1=Alexander Craig |title=The Folk-speech of Cumberland and Some Districts Adjacent: Being Short Stories and Rhymes in the Dialects of the West Border Counties |date=1869 |publisher=J.R. Smith}}</ref>
* Diaereses are used in the [[Lincolnshire]] dialect, for example ''stoän'' "stone", ''goä'' "go" and ''maäke'' "make".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Peacock |first1=Edward |title=A Glossary of Words Used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire Volumes 1-2 |date=1889 |publisher=English dialect society}}</ref>
* Grave accents, circumflexes and diaereses are used in the [[Dorset dialect]], in words such as ''mornèn'' "morning", ''drîth'' "dryness" or "drought" and ''ceäkes'' "cakes".

==Names with diacritics==
Diacritics are used in the names of some English-speaking people:
* British: [[Charlotte Brontë]], [[Emily Brontë]] (and other members of the [[Brontë family]]), [[Noël Coward]], [[Zoë Wanamaker]], [[Emeli Sandé]], [[John le Carré]]
* American: [[Beyoncé Knowles]], [[Chloë Grace Moretz]], [[Chloë Sevigny]], [[Renée Fleming]], [[Renée Zellweger]], [[Zoë Baird]], [[Zoë Kravitz]], [[Donté Stallworth]], [[John C. Frémont]], [[Robert M. Gagné]], [[Roxanne Shanté]], [[Janelle Monáe]], [[Jhené Aiko]], [[Louise Glück]]
* Australian: [[Renée Geyer]], [[Zoë Badwi]]

==Typographical limitations==
The early days of [[metal type]] printing quickly faced problems of not just simple diacritical marks for English, and accents for French and German, but also [[musical notation]] (for sheet music printing) and Greek and Hebrew alphabets (for Bible printing).<ref>{{cite book |first1=Simon |last1=Eliot |first2=Jonathan |last2=Rose |title=A Companion to the History of the Book |date=2011 |page=210 |quote=Within a short time, pages in metal type were combined with woodcut illustrations, later to be followed by metal engravings. Hebrew and Greek, with their vowel points and accents, and music posed problems of vertical as well as horizontal ..}}</ref> However problems with representation of diacritical marks continued even in scholarly publishing and dissertations up to the word processor era.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Scholarly Publishing |title=(Unknown) |volume=? |number=? |date=1982 |page=335 |quote=... after printed copies of the dissertation – printed by the traditional letterpress process, from metal type – had been deposited in ... The original languages often required diacritical marks not used in English or an alphabet other than the Roman.}}</ref>{{incomplete citation|date=April 2024}}  Mechanical [[typewriter]] keyboards manufactured for English-speaking countries seldom include diacritics.

The first generation of [[word processor]]s also had [[character set]] limitations,<ref>{{cite book |first=Rosemary |last=Sassoon |title=Computers and Typography |date=1993 |page=59 |quote=character set limitations}}</ref> and confusion due to typesetting convention was exacerbated in the character coded environment due to limitations of the [[ASCII]] character set.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Horst |last1=Bunke |first2=Patrick |last2=Shen-pei Wang  |title=Handbook of character recognition and document image analysis |date=1997 |page=276 |quote=Confusion due to typesetting convention is exacerbated in the character coded environment due to the unfortunate limitations of the ubiquitous ASCII character set and the lack of a single widely accepted international standard for representation of characters with diacritics}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Lists of English words by country or language of origin]]
* [[List of French expressions in English]]
* [[List of German expressions in English]]
* {{anli|Metal umlaut}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100107005325/http://www.flakery.org/search/show/251 On Diacritics and Archaïsm - A blog]

{{Navbox diacritical marks}}

[[Category:English orthography|Diacritics]]
[[Category:Latin-script diacritics|English terms]]