Re: OT: Diacricital marks [Re: Question about "do"]

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> >French has the remnants of this system, except that it has u-grave in
> >the one word "ou`" to distinguish it from "ou".
>
> And "à" (that's a-grave :) ) to distinguish it from "a" (and "là" to
> distinguish it from "la").
Indeed.  But although a-grave is only used as an orthographic accent
nowadays, at least the grave is the expected accent with a (which is
always low).  The fact that the grave is used with u is what needs
explaining, although perhaps it is a transfer from the orthographic
use of a-grave.

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