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→Types of diacritic: The diaeresis and the umlaut are considered different diacritics. See Diaeresis (diacritic). |
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* [[Czech alphabet|Czech]] has the following composite characters: ''á, č, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ř, š, ť, ú, ů, ý, ž''.
* [[Dutch alphabet|Dutch]] uses the diaeresis. For example in ''ruïne'' it means that the ''u'' and the ''i'' are separately pronounced in their usual way, and not in the way that the combination ''ui'' is normally pronounced. Thus it works as a separation sign and not as an indication for an alternative version of the ''i''. Diacritics can be used for emphasis (''érg koud'' for ''very'' cold) or for disambiguation between a number of words that are spelled the same when context doesn't indicate the correct meaning (''één appel'' = one apple, ''een appel'' = an apple; ''vóórkomen'' = to occur, ''voorkómen'' = to prevent). Grave and acute accents are used on a very small number of words, mostly loanwords. The ç also appears in some loanwords.
* [[English alphabet|English]] is one of the few European languages that does not use diacritical marks, except for some borrowings taken unchanged mainly from [[French language|French]], in which case the diacritic is often omitted. The most likely words to keep the diacritic are apparently those containing ''é'' (such as ''café'', ''résumé'' (especially to distinguish it from the verb "resume"), and ''recipé'') and the word ''naïve'' (See ''[[List of English words with diacritics]]''). English used to use the diaeresis much like Dutch does still (as in words such as "coöperate"), but this has been falling out of use ([[The New Yorker]]'s [[house style]] being one of the few publications to retain this feature). The grave accent was also once used, chiefly in poetry and songs, to modify the pronunciation of words ending in ''-ed''; ''-èd'' indicates a separate syllable.
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