Difference between revisions of "Diacritic"

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* '''Çç''' — A cedilla is used in French.
 
* '''Çç''' — A cedilla is used in French.
  
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Sounds unique to Eastern European languages were once written with two letter combination called "digraphs." Jan Hus proposed the use of diacritics in ''De Ortographia Bohemica'' (1412). Eight upper case characters with diacritics are included in International Morse Code: Ä, Á, Å, Ch (a Czech digraph), É, Ñ, Ö, and Ü. This system also includes the twenty-six characters of the Latin alphabet, ten numerals, and punctuation. It was developed by Friedrich Clemens Gerke in 1848 and was adopted as an international standard in 1865.
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Sounds unique to Eastern European languages were once written with two letter combination called "digraphs." In ''De Ortographia Bohemica'' (1412), Jan Hus proposed the use of diacritics in place of digraphs. Eight upper case characters with diacritics are included in International Morse Code: Ä, Á, Å, Ch (a Czech digraph), É, Ñ, Ö, and Ü. This system also includes the twenty-six characters of the Latin alphabet, ten numerals, and punctuation. It was developed by Friedrich Clemens Gerke in 1848 and was adopted as an international standard in 1865.
  
 
IBM introduced Extended ASCII, an eight-bit encoding standard, with the original PC in 1981. This standard includes 37 characters with diacritics, both upper case and lower case. Latin-1, a slightly revised version the IBM standard, has been adopted as an international standard.<ref>[http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0080.pdf Controls and Latin-1 Supplement], Unicode, Inc.</ref> Unicode, implemented by the Windows operating system since 2000, includes a comprehensive collection of Nordic, Eastern European, and even Asian characters.
 
IBM introduced Extended ASCII, an eight-bit encoding standard, with the original PC in 1981. This standard includes 37 characters with diacritics, both upper case and lower case. Latin-1, a slightly revised version the IBM standard, has been adopted as an international standard.<ref>[http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0080.pdf Controls and Latin-1 Supplement], Unicode, Inc.</ref> Unicode, implemented by the Windows operating system since 2000, includes a comprehensive collection of Nordic, Eastern European, and even Asian characters.

Revision as of 09:48, July 4, 2014

A diacritic is a mark near or through a character that changes its phonetic value or significance. For example, diacritics appear above the letter "e" in the word "résumé." Diacritics are more common in various European languages than they are in English.

The following are Western European (Latin-1) diacritics:

  • Áá, Éé, Íí, Óó, and Úú — An acute accent is a symbol placed over a vowel in some languages, especially French and Italian.
  • Àà, Èè, Ìì, Òò, and Ùù — A grave accent is placed over a vowel in some languages, especially French, Italian and Vietnamese.
  • Ââ, Êê, Îî, Ôô, and Ûû — The circumflex is placed over a vowel in some languages, especially French and Afrikaans.
  • Ää, Ëë, Ïï, Öö, and Üü — An umlaut, represented by two dots above the vowel, is used in some languages, especially German and Afrikaans and Nordic languages like Swedish and Finnish.
  • Ãã and Ññ — A tilde is used in Spanish.
  • Åå and Øø — These symbols are used in Scandinavian writing.
  • Çç — A cedilla is used in French.

Sounds unique to Eastern European languages were once written with two letter combination called "digraphs." In De Ortographia Bohemica (1412), Jan Hus proposed the use of diacritics in place of digraphs. Eight upper case characters with diacritics are included in International Morse Code: Ä, Á, Å, Ch (a Czech digraph), É, Ñ, Ö, and Ü. This system also includes the twenty-six characters of the Latin alphabet, ten numerals, and punctuation. It was developed by Friedrich Clemens Gerke in 1848 and was adopted as an international standard in 1865.

IBM introduced Extended ASCII, an eight-bit encoding standard, with the original PC in 1981. This standard includes 37 characters with diacritics, both upper case and lower case. Latin-1, a slightly revised version the IBM standard, has been adopted as an international standard.[1] Unicode, implemented by the Windows operating system since 2000, includes a comprehensive collection of Nordic, Eastern European, and even Asian characters.

Correct usage

All the major style guides advise the writer to select a widely available reference work and to follow the spellings given in this work. Modern computer software allows dictionary and encyclopedia spellings to be reproduced exactly. Guidance that suggests dropping off technically difficult diacritics may be disregarded as outdated. Better known names, for example "Istanbul" or "Zurich," are often spelled without diacritics in English even though diacritics are part of the local language spelling. Lesser known names are generally spelled in the manner of the original language. Diacritics are not normally used for sports figures or for Vietnamese names. These are just rules of thumb, and each case should be checked separately in an appropriate reference work.

Merriam-Webster[2] American Heritage[3] Oxford[4] Webster’s New World[5] Random House[6] Encyclopedias
Britannica[7] Columbia[8]
Be·neš, Edvard Be·neš, Eduard Beneš, Edvard Beneš, Edvard Be·neš, Ed·u·ard Edvard Beneš Eduard Beneš
Koś·ciusz·ko, Tadeusz Andrzei Bonawentura Kos·ci·uśz·ko or Kos·ci·us·ko, Thaddeus Kosciusko, Thaddeus Kosciusko, Thaddeus Kos·ci·us·ko, Thaddeus Tadeusz Kościuszko Thaddeus Kosciusko
Mit·ter·rand, François (-Maurice) Mit·ter·rand, François Maurice Mitterrand, François Mitterrand, François (Maurice) Mit·ter·rand, Fran·çois (Mau·rice Ma·rie) François Mitterrand François Maurice Mitterrand
Tō·jō Hideki To·jo, Hideki Tojo, Hideki Tojo, Hideki To·jo, Hi·de·ki Tōjō Hideki Tōjō Hideki
Vö·rös·marty, Mihály[9] N/A N/A N/A N/A Mihály Vörösmarty Mihály Vörösmarty
Wa·łe·sa [sic.], Lech Wa·łę·sa, Lech Wałęsa, Lech Wałęsa, Lech Wa·łę·sa, Lech Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names sets U.S. government usage in geography. The “conventional” name is the name BGN deems suitable for English language usage. The “approved” name is the official name in the local language.

Merriam-Webster[2] American Heritage[3] Oxford[4] Webster’s New World[5] Random House[6] Encyclopedias U.S. Board on Geographic Names[10]
Britannica[7] Columbia[8] Conventional Approved
Is·tan·bul Is·tan·bul Istanbul Istanbul Is·tan·bul Istanbul Istanbul N/A İstanbul
Jy·vas·ky·la N/A Jyväskylä N/A Jy·väs·ky·lä Jyväskylä Jyväskylä N/A Jyväskylä
Lü·beck Lü·beck Lübeck Lü·beck Lü·beck Lübeck Lübeck N/A Lübeck
Plo·iesti or Plo·esti Plo·ieş·ti or Plo·eş·ti Ploieşti Plo·ieş•ti or Plo·eş·ti' Plo·eş·ti Ploieşti Ploieşti N/A Ploiești
Zu·rich Zu·rich Zurich Zurich Zu·rich Zürich Zürich N/A Zürich
Vietnamese towns
Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City Formerly Sai·gon Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh
Ha·noi Ha·noi Hanoi Hanoi Ha·noi Hanoi Hanoi N/A Hà Nội
Hai·phong Hai·phong Haiphong Haiphong Hai·phong Haiphong Haiphong N/A Hải Phòng
Hue[11] Hue Hué Hue Hué Hue Hue N/A Huế

References

  1. ↑ Controls and Latin-1 Supplement, Unicode, Inc.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Oxford Dictionaries
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Webster’s New World College Dictionary
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Random House Dictionary
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Encyclopædia Britannica
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Columbia Encyclopedia
  9. ↑ This name is not given in the Collegiate, but only in Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary (1995).
  10. ↑ U.S. Board on Geographic Names
  11. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Geographic Dictionary (1997) gives "Hue or Hué." The variant has a French (not Vietnamese) diacritic over the e.

External links

The following references may be consulted to determine proper spelling, including the correct use of diacritics:

American dictionaries

British dictionaries

Encyclopedias

Sports

Further Reading

  • Merriam-Webster's Geographic Dictionary. Recommended by CMOS for the spelling of place names. Britannica follows the same style as this book. In fact, the material on Britannica’s site is likely to be more carefully edited, more comprehensive, and more up to date. (This book was last updated in 1997.)
  • Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary. Recommended by CMOS for the spelling of personal names. The comments above regarding Britannica and geographic names are even more applicable to biographical names. MWBD was last updated in 1995 and is no longer in print.
  • National Geographic Atlas of the World. Recommended by AP.
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