Question

what does a diacritical mark do?

Answer 1

A diacritical mark is a symbol added to a letter to modify its pronunciation or to distinguish it from similar letters. Diacritical marks can indicate various features, such as stress, tone, vowel quality, or consonant pronunciation. They are commonly used in many languages to clarify meaning or to guide pronunciation. Examples include the acute accent (é), grave accent (è), umlaut (ö), and tilde (ñ). In some cases, diacritical marks can change the meaning of a word entirely, as seen in languages like Spanish and French.