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
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.
- Precomposed letters with this diacritic are: Ä ä Ë ë Ḧ ḧ Ï ï Ö ö Ü ü Ẅ ẅ Ẍ ẍ Ÿ ÿ Ǖ ǖ Ǘ ǘ Ǚ ǚ Ǜ ǜ Ǟ ǟ Ȫ ȫ Ḯ ḯ Ṏ ṏ Ṻ ṻ ẗ
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: ÅU+00C5 åU+00E5 ŮU+016E ůU+016F ǺU+01FA ǻU+01FB ẘU+1E98 ẙU+1E99
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] |