A graphemic addition to a written symbol used to create a new symbol from a pre-existing symbol. Economically, diacritics help keep the inventory of basic phonetic signs as small and as comprehensive as possible: for example, in German the diaeresis is...

1 Binary phonological opposition in distinctive feature analysis, based on acoustically analyzed and spectrally defined criteria ( acoustic phonetics, spectral analysis). Acoustic characteristic: greater or lesser concentration of energy in the lower...

n. 1. A distinctive feature with no phonetic content which is invoked by the analyst to label instances of a segment which behave exceptionally with respect to other instances of the same segment, or to a morpheme which exhibits anomalous behaviour....

// n. In some analyses, a morphological or syntactic feature attached to a particular lexical item or small group of lexical items and serving to denote that such items behave exceptionally with respect to some regular grammatical process. For example,...

A diacritic or diacritical mark, also called an accent, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from Greek διακριτικός (diakritikos, "distinguishing"). "Diacritic" is...