Read the following passage and choose the best title.
The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. It originated around the 7th century from the Latin script.
English is the only major modern European language that requires no diacritics for native words. Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords such as naïve and façade. Informal English writing tends to omit diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while professional copywriters and typesetters tend to include them.
As loanwords become naturalised in English, there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as has happened with many older borrowings from French, such as hôtel. Words that are still perceived as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling of soupçon found in English dictionaries uses the diacritic. However, diacritics are likely to be retained even in naturalised words where they would otherwise be confused with a common native English word e.g. résumé rather than resume. Rarely, they may even be added to a loanword for this reason, as in maté, from the Spanish yerba mate but with the é to distinguish from the English word 'mate'.
(Source: wikipedia.org)
Choose the best title from the list below.
A) The English alphabet
B) The use of diacritics in written English
C) Disappearing diacritics in the English language
D) How loanwords have entered the English language
Note: Did you work out what the word 'diacritic' means?
I think the answer is 'B'
Posted by: Gaurav | July 15, 2019 at 15:08
B
Posted by: Saud Porky | July 15, 2019 at 16:16
(A) answer
Posted by: Pachu Ray | July 15, 2019 at 16:17
C
Posted by: Nguyen Viet Pham | July 15, 2019 at 16:45
B
Posted by: Iroshan464 | July 15, 2019 at 16:49
(B)
----
Note:
Diacritical marks are graphic signs that put on the above, below and sometimes within or on the middle of two letters to modify the sounds of the letters.
Posted by: Matt | July 15, 2019 at 16:53
B
Posted by: prince | July 15, 2019 at 17:53
B
Posted by: Oley | July 15, 2019 at 18:10
Guess by reading the whole article ‘Diacritics’ are marks used in original languages of that countries which seemingly do not appear on English typing keyboard so then can be omitted when are used in English like ‘ I ‘ with two dots above in naive.
Posted by: Oley | July 15, 2019 at 18:24
B
Posted by: Joyce | July 15, 2019 at 19:08
C
Posted by: Amina | July 15, 2019 at 20:24
Diacritics are signs when marked above or below the word will change its pronunciation such as cave n cafe'
Cafe' e at the end has accent above making it pronounce cafey...
Whereas in 'cave"it is accent free so cave
Is pronounced differently
Posted by: Amina | July 15, 2019 at 20:31
C
Posted by: Sajan | July 15, 2019 at 20:54
C
Posted by: Tej | July 15, 2019 at 23:07
B
Posted by: z | July 15, 2019 at 23:15
B
Posted by: Ester | July 16, 2019 at 02:33
c
Posted by: ATITI | July 16, 2019 at 02:41
C
Posted by: minhthuan | July 16, 2019 at 02:47
C
Posted by: rita | July 16, 2019 at 02:50
B
— — — — — — — — — — —
Diacritics are used in Vietnamese language too :)
I have a question about the following sentence:
"Rarely, they may even added to a loanword for this reason, as in maté,..."
"added" doesn't appear to be in the correct form, right?
PS. This is my first post here in this blog, and I wanna say hello to everyone :p
Posted by: Khánh Khánh | July 16, 2019 at 03:04
I think the answer is B. The last sentence of the second paragraph can prove this.
Posted by: Trisha | July 16, 2019 at 03:33
C
Posted by: niuxiufeng | July 16, 2019 at 04:45
Answer B
Posted by: Akter | July 16, 2019 at 04:58
C
Posted by: Linh tạ | July 16, 2019 at 05:44
C
Posted by: Roxana | July 16, 2019 at 05:55
B
Posted by: Nazanin | July 16, 2019 at 06:05
C
Posted by: Shaza | July 16, 2019 at 07:45
B
Posted by: An | July 16, 2019 at 09:36
I think the answer is A.
Posted by: Vũ Thắng | July 16, 2019 at 09:41
C
Posted by: Char | July 16, 2019 at 09:43
Absolutely C
Posted by: Colton | July 16, 2019 at 09:47
B
Posted by: Maha Mustafa | July 16, 2019 at 11:49
Khanh Khanh,
Well noticed. It should say “be added”. I’ve just corrected it.
Hello and welcome!
Posted by: Simon | July 16, 2019 at 12:32
CORRECT ANSWER FROM SIMON:
B
Posted by: Simon | July 16, 2019 at 12:33
Sir,why the correct answer is B as we know it is all about 'The English Alphabet'.
Posted by: Gurkaran | July 16, 2019 at 13:43
B
Posted by: Susana Mesa Vanegas | July 17, 2019 at 06:11
C
Posted by: Priya | July 17, 2019 at 16:46
B
Posted by: Sita Thapa | July 17, 2019 at 17:20
C
Posted by: Qianwen | July 17, 2019 at 17:29
B
Posted by: Alex | July 20, 2019 at 20:33
B
Posted by: EMAN | July 21, 2019 at 12:39
c
Posted by: Mahsa | July 23, 2019 at 01:17
B
Posted by: Mojtaba Karami | July 30, 2019 at 10:36
(C)
I think the reason should be C, because the article said that people omit the diacritics, and some french words' diacritics was drop put.
Posted by: Jon | July 30, 2019 at 12:15
D
Posted by: Phan Phoi | August 01, 2019 at 14:50
C
Posted by: Wes | August 09, 2019 at 03:51
B
Posted by: Dang Khoa | September 16, 2019 at 14:44
A
Posted by: ihssan | October 13, 2019 at 16:42
B
Posted by: hei | May 21, 2020 at 20:02