Natlang Uses of Diacritics in the Latin Alphabet

This page will list different uses of diacritical marks that have natland precedence. Conlangers can use this to find inspiration for their own conlang romanizations.

Diaeresis/Umlaut

Precomposed letters with diaeresis/umlaut

Ä

ä

Ǟ

ǟ

Ë

ë

Ḧ

ḧ

Ï

ï

Ḯ

ḯ

Ö

U+00C4

U+00E4

U+01DE

U+01DF

U+00CB

U+00EB

U+1E26

U+1E27

U+00CF

​ U+00EF

U+1E2E

U+1E2F

U+00D6

Latin Capital Letter A With Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter A With Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter A With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Small Letter A With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Capital Letter E With Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter E With Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter H With Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter H With Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter I With Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter I With Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter I With Diaeresis And Acute

Latin Small Letter I With Diaeresis And Acute

​ Latin Capital Letter O With Diaeresis

ö

Ȫ

ȫ

Ṏ

ṏ

ẗ

Ü

ü

Ǖ

ǖ

Ǘ

ǘ

Ǚ

U+00F6

​ U+022A

U+022B

U+1E4E

U+1E4F

U+1E97

U+00DC

​ U+00FC

U+01D5

U+01D6

U+01D7

U+01D8

U+01D9

Latin Small Letter O With Diaeresis

​ Latin Capital Letter O With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Small Letter O With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Capital Letter O With Tilde And Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter O With Tilde And Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter T With Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter U With Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter U With Diaeresis And Macron

Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis And Macron

​ Latin Capital Letter U With Diaeresis And Acute

Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis And Acute

Latin Capital Letter U With Diaeresis And Caron

ǚ

Ǜ

ǜ

Ṻ

ṻ

Ẅ

ẅ

Ẍ

ẍ

Ÿ

ÿ

U+01DA

U+01DB

U+01DC

U+1E7A

U+1E7B

U+1E84

U+1E85

U+1E8C

U+1E8D

U+0178

U+00FF

Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis And Caron

Latin Capital Letter U With Diaeresis And Grave

Latin Small Letter U With Diaeresis And Grave

Latin Capital Letter U With Macron And Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter U With Macron And Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter W With Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter W With Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter X With Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter X With Diaeresis

Latin Capital Letter Y With Diaeresis

Latin Small Letter Y With Diaeresis

Diaeresis (known as tréma in French) and umlaut both employ the same character: ¨ (U+00A8 for the non-combining form, U+0308 for the combining). But there is a difference of use between diaeresis and umlaut. Letters with umlaut stand for completely different sounds than their non-accented counterparts. For example in Swedish <o> represents /u/ while <ö> represents /ø/. Diaeresis on the other does not change the sound value of a letter, but instead marks that a vowel is not part of a diphthong or digraph.

Diaeresis/Umlaut

Use	Language	Letters	Origin
Front version of back vowel	Finnish	Ää /æ/, Öö /ø/	From Swedish.
	Livonian	Ää /æ/
	Swedish	Ää /ɛ/, Öö /ø/	The umlaut evolved from the letter e in the digraphs ae[1] and oe[2].
Syllable break. When two vowel follow each other, a diaeresis on the second vowel indicates that the vowels are in two different syllables instead of forming a diphthong.	French	Ëë, Ïï, Üü, Ÿÿ

Ring Above

The non-combining form of ˚ is U+02DA and the combining form is U+030A. Precomposed letters with this diacritic are: Å_U+00C5 å_U+00E5 Ů_U+016E ů_U+016F Ǻ_U+01FA ǻ_U+01FB ẘ_U+1E98 ẙ_U+1E99

Ring Above

Use	Language	Letters	Origin
Back version of front vowel. Often rounded.	Chamorro	Åå /ɑ/
	Danish, Norwegian	Åå /ɔ/	From an earlier digraph aa representing /ɔ/, which in turn came from /aː/.[3]
	Swedish	Åå /o/	From an earlier digraph aa representing /ɔ/, which in turn came from /aː/.[4]