acute accent - A little diagonal line, used over a vowel. Usually indicates which syllable is stressed. Slants from upper right down to lower left. Used in French, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Example: 0225 (accent over lowercase a)
(BREEV) - A curved mark over a vowel. Used to indicate a short vowel or a short or unstressed syllable. (Sometimes referred to as a "smiley face.") Used in Latin and Turkish. No example in standard Windows character set.
caret (CARE-et) - The "hat" symbol found on the "6" key. See also circumflex. Used in French and Portuguese. Example: 0226 (lowercase a with caret above)
caron - See hacek.
cedilla (sih-DIL-uh) - A tiny curved symbol, like a backward c, placed at the bottom of a letter to indicate a different pronunciation (as in the French word "facade"). Used in French. Example: 0231 (cedilla beneath lowercase c)
circumflex - A mark such as the caret or tilde placed over a vowel to indicate various pronunciations. Used in French and Polish. Example: 0226 (circumflex above lowercase a)
diaeresis (deye-ER-uh-suhs) - The two dots that appear over a vowel (or dieresis) to show that the vowel is pronounced in a separate syllable (as in the word "naive," with the diaeresis over the i). Looks like an umlaut. Example: 0239 (diaeresis above lowercase i)
digraph - See ligature.
edh (ETH) - A letter used in Icelandic and Old English (eth) to represent a particular sound, usually "th." Looks like a d tilted to the left, with a horizontal line across the vertical stroke of the d. Example: 0240
grave accent (GRAYV or GRAHV) - The diagonal line that appears above a vowel. Slants from upper left to lower right (the reverse of the acute accent). Used in Ancient Greek, French, and Italian. Example: 0224 (grave accent above lowercase a)
hacek (HAH-check) - Looks like an upside-down caret or a small "v." Placed above vowels and some consonants. Used in many Eastern European languages. Example: 0154 (s with hacek above). Not available as a separate character with any of the fonts that ship with Microsoft Windows.
Hungarian - Two acute accents or prime marks. Used above a letter, usually o or u. Used in Hungarian. No example in ANSI character set.
ligature - A character that resembles two characters joined together, as in AE, fl, or OE. Used in Latin and English. Example: 0198 (uppercase AE ligature).
macron (MAY-krahn or MAH-kruhn) - A horizontal line over a vowel to indicate that the vowel is to be pronounced stressed or long. Used in Latin. Example: 0175. Available as a separate character only.
ogonek - A small mark placed beneath a letter. Generally under e and a. Different reference books use different marks. Used in Polish. No example available in ANSI character set.
Polish cedilla - See ogonek. Hollow circle above a vowel. Used mainly in (or volle) Scandinavian languages. Example: 0229 (lowercase a with ring above)
tilde - Placed over a letter to denote the "nyuh" sound (as in the Spanish word "senora," with the tilde over the n), or over a vowel to indicate nasality (as in the Portuguese word "irma," with the tilde over the a). Example: 0227 (lowercase a with tilde above)
umlaut - Two dots placed above a vowel to indicate a partial assimilation to a succeeding sound. Used primarily in German. Example: 0252 (lowercase u with umlaut above)