Usage of marks

[nessie]

Hi,

Some languages, such as Vietnamese or French, has "marks" accompanied with the words (may be you don't know Vietnamese, but I assume most of you can speak French)

i.e.

résumé (French)
tiếng Anh (Vietnamese)

I just wonder whether we should call them "marks" or anything.
Many thanks
Nessie
_________________
... something we never have again, I know... I guess I really really know..

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

[Jamie (K)]

Those marks are called "diacritics" or "diacritical marks". Each one has its own name.

` = grave accent (pronounced [grav], not [greiv])
´ = accute accent (some people call it a gue accent)
^ = cirumflex
˜ = tilde
ˇ = hacek (pronounced [hatʃɛk]
¨ = umlaut (some people call it dieresis, but it sounds too much like diarrhea)

You can get more information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic

[nessie]