diacriticsSpanish

Diacritics in Spanish are symbols added to letters to alter their pronunciation or meaning. The most common diacritic is the acute accent, or tilde (´), which is placed over vowels like á, é, í, ó, and ú. This accent marks the stressed syllable in words that do not follow the standard pronunciation rules, which are typically words ending in a consonant other than 'n' or 's', or words ending in a vowel, 'n', or 's' where the stress falls on the penultimate syllable. For example, 'hablar' (to speak) has stress on the last syllable, while 'árbol' (tree) requires an accent on the first 'a' to indicate the stress.

Another important diacritic is the diaeresis, or umlaut (¨), which appears over the letter 'u' in the combinations 'güe' and 'güi'. This indicates that the 'u' should be pronounced, as in 'pingüino' (penguin) or 'vergüenza' (shame). Without the diaeresis, the 'u' in 'gue' and 'gui' is silent, as in 'guerra' (war).

The tilde (~) is a unique diacritic in Spanish, appearing only over the letter 'n' to form 'ñ'. This letter represents a distinct sound, similar to the 'ny' in the English word "canyon" or the 'gn' in French 'champagne'. Words like 'niño' (child) and 'español' (Spanish) feature this letter.

Finally, the cedilla (¸) was historically used under the letter 'c' before 'a', 'o', or 'u' to indicate a soft 's' sound, as in 'corazón' (heart). However, this diacritic is no longer used in modern Spanish orthography according to the Real Academia Española. These diacritics are crucial for correct pronunciation and understanding in the Spanish language.