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

JS Bangs scripsit:

> > And the circumflex is a later French innovation?
>
> It exists (albeit with a wholly different meaning) in Greek, which makes
> me think that the Greeks invented it. In Greek, its shape is vaguely
> indicative of its meaning, too, since it indicated falling tone and
> consists of an acute (high tone) followed by a grave (low tone).
Indeed, the *shapes* of all three accents come from Greek, and their
names are translations of the Greek names.  But their *purposes* have
nothing to do with Greek.

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