diacritic etymology

Etymology

The word "diacritic" comes from the Greek word "diakritikos," meaning "distinctive" or "discriminating." It is derived from the verb "diakrino," which means "to separate" or "to distinguish."

Meaning

A diacritic is a mark or sign added to a letter to indicate a difference in pronunciation, stress, or meaning. It is placed above, below, or next to the letter to modify its sound or function.

Origin

The use of diacritics originated in ancient Greek, where they were used to mark accents, tones, and breathing. They were later adopted by other languages, including Latin, Arabic, and Cyrillic.

Types of Diacritics

There are various types of diacritics, including:

• Accents: marks that indicate stress or tone, such as the acute accent (´), grave accent (`), and circumflex accent (^).
• Breaths: marks that indicate how a letter is pronounced, such as the rough breathing (´), which marks a hard pronunciation of "h," and the smooth breathing (῾), which marks a soft pronunciation or its absence.
• Marks of length: marks that indicate vowel length, such as the macron (¯) and the breve (˘).
• Other diacritics: include the cedilla (¸), which indicates a soft "s" sound, and the umlaut (¨), which indicates a change in vowel sound.

Examples

• The acute accent in "café" indicates stress on the second syllable.
• The circumflex accent in "côte" changes the "e" from a short "e" to a long "a" sound.
• The cedilla in "façade" indicates that the "c" is pronounced as "s."
• The umlaut in "über" changes the "u" from a short "u" to an "oo" sound.

Purpose

Diacritics serve several purposes:

• To distinguish between different pronunciations of the same letter.
• To indicate stress or tone.
• To mark vowel length.
• To differentiate between homonyms (words that have the same spelling but different meanings).
• To denote foreign or special pronunciations.

diacritic relate terms

• ascertain

  Etymology Origin Late Latin as certāre to determine decide Meaning to establish

• certain

  Etymology Etymology is the study of the origin and history of words It investigates how

• concern

  Etymology Old French concerner to belong to concern Latin contingere to happen o

• concert

  Etymology The word concert comes from the Middle French word concerto which in turn c

• crime

  Etymology The word crime originates from the Latin word crimen which means accusat

• criminal

  Etymology The word criminal derives from the Latin word crimen which means accusati

• crisis

  Etymology The word crisis comes from the Greek word krisis which means a turning p

• critic

  Etymology Old French critique Late Latin critica Greek kritikē feminine of kritiko

• criterion

  Etymology and Meaning Criterion comes from the Greek word κριτήριον kritērion

• decree

  Etymology Middle English decreten from Old French decrier decretir from Latin decer

• diacritic

  Etymology The word diacritic comes from the Greek word diakritikos meaning distinct

• discern

  Etymology Origin Latin Root Word Discernere Meaning To see apart to distinguish Me

• disconcert

  Etymology Disconcert is derived from the French phrase déconcerter meaning to up

• discreet

  Etymology of Discreet The word discreet originates from the Latin word discretus

• discriminate

  Etymology The word discriminate originates from the Latin word discriminare meaning

• endocrine

  Etymology Origin Greek endo within crine to secrete Meaning Secreting in

• excrement

  Etymology The word excrement comes from the Latin word excernere which means to sep

• excrete

  Etymology Old French excretter Latin excernere to separate sift out Latin verb ce

• garble

  Etymology Middle English garbelen from Anglo French garbeler from Old French garbel

• incertitude

  Etymology From Old French incertitude from Latin incertitudinis genitive of incertitu

• recrement

  Etymology The word recrement comes from the Latin word recrementum which means refu

• recriminate

  Etymology re again back criminare to accuse Meaning To accuse somebody in ret

• riddle

  Etymology of Riddle Early 13th century from Old English rǣdels a riddle an enigm

• secret

  Etymology of Secret Old French seceret Latin secretum something kept back Proto

• secretary

  Etymology Latin secretarius keeper of secrets Proto Indo European sekw follow

• obelisk

  Etymology The word obelisk is derived from the Greek word obeliskos which means po

• mark

  Etymology The name Mark is derived from the Proto Indo European root merk meaning

• breve

  Etymology Derived from the Latin word brevis meaning short Meaning Short in dur

• dieresis

  Etymology and Meaning Etymology From Ancient Greek διαίρεσις diaíresis

• cedilla

  Etymology The word cedilla comes from the Spanish word cedilla which is derived fro

• circumflex

  Etymology The word circumflex comes from the Latin circumflexus which means bent ar

• accent

  Etymology From Middle English accent borrowed from Old French accent derived from

• tilde

  Etymology Portuguese til title designating a husband Spanish tilde a diacritic Me

• wedge

  Etymology Wedge comes from the Middle English word wegge itself derived from the Old E