Some English language words have letters with diacritical marks. Most of the words are loanwords from French, with others coming from Spanish, German, or other languages. Some are however originally English, or at least their diacritics are. Proper nouns are not generally counted, except when used as an eponym. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetical value. ... Example of a letter with a diacritic A diacritical mark or diacritic, also called an accent, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... A proper noun is a noun that picks out a unique entity. ... An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, who has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ...

Trend towards dropping diacritics

When foreign words are used in a new language — in this case English — they are eventually “naturalized”; their pronunciation and spelling are gradually adapted to the rules of the host language. ^{[citation needed]} Since English uses diacritics only rarely, they are often considered non-English by native speakers and thus dropped. Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Proper spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. ...

Technical restrictions or lack of understanding among technicians can also cause foreign words, personal and place names to be incorrectly reproduced in print. English language spell checker applications may label correct diacritical spellings as incorrect because the programs' dictionaries do not include them. This has increased general ignorance of, lack of interest in and "respect" for diacritic spellings in English, despite the fact that technology has advanced sufficiently to handle diacritics well in most cases.^{[citation needed]} In computing terms, a spelling checker (also spell checker) is a software program designed to verify the spelling of words in a file, helping a user ensure his/her spelling is correct. ...

However, not all areas of English usage are dropping diacritics.^{[citation needed]}

Reasons for not dropping diacritics

If foreign words are used only by a small group of people, their foreign spelling and even pronunciation are often preserved for a long time due to various reasons. Membership in the group may require a considerable amount of education, and this may have brought with it an understanding and appreciation of foreign languages and their spelling systems and pronunciation. In addition, all social groups have ways of showing who belongs to the group and who doesn't, and it may be necessary to use or at least be aware of a diacritical spelling of a term to be considered a "real" professional. On the other hand, due to a general trend towards openness, transparency, and popularisation in most academic disciplines and a lack of foreign language skills in most non-academic professions in English-speaking countries, there is a definite conscious trend and effort to get rid of diacritics in cases where their use is not necessary for reasons of comprehension and/or pronunciation. This article is not about the magazine, Popular Science Popular science is interpretation of science intended for a general audience, rather than for other scientists or students. ...

Current state

Most originally non-English words have become “naturalized” into the English language; a similar process occurs in all other languages. This process is carried out mostly unconsciously by all normal users. Since modern dictionaries are mostly descriptive and no longer prescribe outdated forms, they increasingly drop the accents and other diacritics (for example "à propos", which lost both the accent and space to become apropos). Many if not most of the words listed below with accents and other diacritics are actually in the process of losing their accents but can be found in print in both their accented and unaccented versions. Other words are still most often found with their accents, often to help indicate pronunciation (e.g. frappé, naïve, soufflé), or to help distinguish them from an unaccented English word (e.g. exposé, résumé, rosé). Sometimes diacritics are even added to imported words that originally didn't have any, often to distinguish them from common English words or to assist in proper pronunciation; maté from Spanish mate and animé are examples of these. In some cases, the only correct English spelling (as given by the OED and other dictionaries) requires the diacritic (e.g., soupçon, façade). In linguistics, prescription is the laying down or prescribing of normative rules for the use of a language, or the making of recommendations for effective language usage. ... The Oxford English Dictionary print set The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is the most successful dictionary of the English language, (not to be confused with the one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English, formerly New Oxford Dictionary of English, of...

Regional differences

The trend to drop diacritics is much stronger in U.S. English than in British English. The current state changes from one edition to the next of all dictionaries. Generally speaking, if one wants to make a “good impression” (show that one is "educated"), it is better to use the diacritical form unless one is an expert in the field and knows whether it is already considered okay to drop the diacritic. On the other hand, one can decide to purposely make a self-assured and "modern" impression by trusting to one’s feel for the language and using spellings without diacritics (perhaps in connection with something blatant like a so-called split infinitive to show that the diacritic was left out on purpose). For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... A split infinitive is a grammatical construction in the English language where a word or phrase, usually an adverb or adverbial phrase, occurs between the marker to and the bare infinitive (uninflected) form of a verb. ...

Other issues

Technical terms or those associated with specific fields (especially cooking or musical terms) are less likely to lose their accents (such as soupçon and entrée). Some Spanish words with the letter “Ñ” have been naturalised by replacing the “eñe” with “ny” (e.g. cañón is now usually canyon, piñón is now usually pinyon). Certain words like piñata, jalapeño and quinceañera are usually kept intact; however, in many instances the Ñ is replaced with the English letter N. Ñ and ñ in Arial and Times New Roman, with an example word from Panare Ñ is a letter of the modern Roman alphabet formed by an N with a diacritical tilde. ... Grand Canyon, Arizona Noravank Monastery complex and canyon in Armenia. ... Species Section Cembroides     Pinus cembroides     Pinus orizabensis     Pinus johannis     Pinus culminicola     Pinus remota     Pinus edulis     Pinus monophylla     Pinus quadrifolia Section Rzedowskiae     Pinus rzedowskii     Pinus pinceana     Pinus maximartinezii Section Nelsoniae     Pinus nelsonii The pinyon pines (or piñon pines), are a group of pines, which grow in the southwestern United States... Look up N, n in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In German words, the letters with umlauts “ä, ö, ü” may be written “ae, oe, ue”. This could be seen in many newspapers during World War II, which instead of writing Führer, wrote Fuehrer. However, umlauts are usually now left out, with no "e" following the previous letter. This perhaps could be because of a lack in German language knowledge. The umlaut mark (or simply umlaut) and the trema or diaeresis mark (or simply diaeresis) are two diacritics consisting of a pair of dots placed over a letter. ...

Occasionally, hypercorrection can occur with borrowed words, with diacritics added where there should be none, in the erroneous belief that this is the correct form. An example is the addition of an accent to the “e” in latte, to become latté or even lattè. In Italian, where an accent (almost always a grave accent) is used to indicate stress on the final syllable, latte is stressed on the first syllable, so has no accent. However, confusion with French café or Italian caffè leads to the unnecessary accent being added. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

See also

• Diacritics
• Loan words
• English language: Written accents

Example of a letter with a diacritic A diacritical mark or diacritic, also called an accent, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ... A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken in by one language from another. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Lists

• Lists of English words of international origin
• List of English words of French origin
• French phrases used by English speakers
• List of German expressions in English
• List of English words of Spanish origin
• Wiktionary:Transwiki:List of Spanish expressions in common English