Díakrítísk

Díakrítísk is a term originating from Ancient Greek, meaning "distinguishing." In linguistics and phonetics, it refers to a diacritical mark, also known as a diacritic, which is a symbol added to a letter to alter its pronunciation, meaning, or to distinguish it from another otherwise similar letter. These marks are not letters themselves but are typically placed above, below, within, or beside a letter.

Diacritical marks serve various functions across different languages. They can indicate stress, tone, or vowel length, as seen in the acute accent (´) in languages like Spanish or Greek. They can also modify a consonant's sound, such as the cedilla (¸) used in French to indicate that a 'c' should be pronounced like an 's' before 'a', 'o', or 'u'. Other common diacritics include the umlaut (¨) in German, the tilde (˜) in Portuguese, and the grave accent (`) used in many European languages.

The use of diacritics is essential for accurate pronunciation and comprehension in many writing systems. Without them, many words could be ambiguous or incorrectly pronounced, leading to misunderstandings. While some languages, like English, use very few diacritics, they are integral to the orthography of a vast number of other languages worldwide, contributing significantly to the richness and precision of written communication.