diakrittinen

Diakrittinen refers to a diacritical mark, which is a glyph added to a letter or character to indicate a change in its pronunciation, distinguish it from a similar character, or denote a specific linguistic feature. These marks are commonly used in many writing systems, particularly in alphabetic scripts. Examples include the acute accent (´), grave accent (`), circumflex (ˆ), umlaut (¨), and cedilla (¸).

Diacritical marks can serve various purposes. They might indicate stress or tone, as seen in languages like Spanish or Vietnamese. In other cases, they modify the sound of a consonant or vowel, such as the umlaut in German or the cedilla under the 'c' in French to indicate a soft 's' sound. They can also differentiate between words that would otherwise be spelled identically, a phenomenon known as minimal pairs.

The use of diacritics is not universal and varies greatly depending on the language and its orthography. Some languages, like English, use very few diacritical marks, while others rely heavily on them for accurate pronunciation and meaning. The study of diacritical marks falls under the broader field of paleography and typography, examining their historical development and their role in written communication.