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

MR = me
JC = John Cowan

MR>  am I correct in thinking that Italian only has the grave accent?

No, apparently I'm not. :)

JC> It's not so simple.  Italian, like Catalan, mostly keeps to the "old
JC> rules": the grave on low vowels, the acute on high ones.

Ah!  I was not aware of these "old rules".  I take it they were a
feature of Romance (or whatever you choose to call the last common vulgar
Latin) before it diverged?

JC> The only absolutely required accents in Italian are on
JC> final stressed vowels and on certain monosyllables as a disambiguator
JC> (as in Spanish).

Yes; the only ones I've seen in my limited exposure are on final è [e`] and
à [a`].


JC> It's also common to use a sort of breve in handwriting.

Handwritten accents seem to follow a rule that basically states
"as long as there's something over the vowel, it doesn't matter what it is" :)

JC> French has the remnants of this system, except that it has u-grave in
JC> the one word "ou`" to distinguish it from "ou".

And the circumflex is a later French innovation?

-Mark

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