English words with diacritics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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[edit] Trend towards dropping diacritics
As in the case of all other languages, originally foreign words used in the new language — in this case English — are eventually “naturalized”, at least when they are used widely. This means that their pronunciation and spelling are eventually adapted to the new language. Since English uses diacritics only rarely, they are considered non-English by most users and dropped as soon as possible. This often happens without any conscious decision, most users thinking that these are superfluous smudges or not even noticing them.
In addition, even today, technical restrictions or lack of understanding among technicians can cause foreign words and even people's names to be incorrectly reproduced on computers or on TV, for example. These occurrences have 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.
English versions of word processors may label correct diacritical spellings as incorrect because the programs' dictionaries are deficient, or perhaps because their makers made a conscious decision to only add variants without diacritics in all cases in which such use does not label their user as ignorant.
However, not all areas of English usage are dropping diacritics.[citation needed]
[edit] 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.
[edit] Current state
So, most originally non-English words have become “naturalized” into the English language (and the same process exists 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).
[edit] 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 OK 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).
[edit] 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.
In German words, the 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's following the previous letter. This perhaps could be because of a lack in German language knowledge.
In some cases, the diacritic is not borrowed from any foreign language but is purely of English origin. This includes the “oö” in the now somewhat rare variant spellings of words such as “coöperation” (compare the original French coopération). A famous of example of this diaresis, of course, is the MIT Harvard book coöp/coop. One obvious example of this in literature is in the name Brontë, which is seen both with and without the diacritic to this day.
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.
[edit] See also
[edit] 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
- List of Spanish expressions in common English
