diacritic
8.6
A small mark that changes the sound of a letter
- noun
- /ˌdaɪəˈkrɪtɪk/
- Specialized
:
diacrítico
- In your illustration, I reckon what is happening is that the font does not contain correct mark-to-base positioning for the combining acute relative to the alpha, and hence when the precomposed diacritic first displayed is decomposed, that mark ends up in the wrong place.
Examples
-
In French, the acute accent is a common diacritic used in words like 'café'.
-
The diacritic on the letter changes its pronunciation to a softer sound.
-
Without the correct diacritic marks, the meaning of the word can be misunderstood.
Synonyms
6.4
A small sign written on a letter to show how to say it or to change its meaning
is written as a single shorter word while keeping the same function
Surface Forms
diacritic singular
diacritics plural
Etymology
The word diacritic comes from the Greek parts dia- 'apart' and crit 'to separate' as in critic. A diacritic is a small mark added to a letter to help 'tell it apart' or change its sound, as with the accent on 'é'.
