A diacritical mark is a symbol added to a letter to indicate a modification in pronunciation, stress, tone, or meaning. These marks can appear above, below, or through letters in various languages. Common examples of diacritical marks include:
- Acute accent (´): as in "é" (French).
- Grave accent (`): as in "è" (French).
- Circumflex (ˆ): as in "ô" (French).
- Tilde (˜): as in "ñ" (Spanish).
- Umlaut or diaeresis (¨): as in "ö" (German).
- Cedilla (¸): as in "ç" (French and Portuguese).
Diacritical marks can significantly change the meaning of words and are important for proper pronunciation in many languages.
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