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diacritical mark

Notation
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A symbol added to letters to indicate pronunciation, stress, or tone in poetry.

Detailed Definition
A diacritical mark is a glyph added to a letter to modify its pronunciation, stress, or meaning, such as an accent (é), umlaut (ü), or cedilla (ç); in poetry, especially in multilingual or phonetically precise verse, diacritics guide correct reading, preserve etymological nuance, or signal metrical emphasis, ensuring fidelity to the poet’s intended sound and rhythm.
Example
Example in poetry:
Emily Dickinson’s poems use dashes as distinctive diacritical marks to shape reading rhythm; Alice Fulton’s poems employ a double equal sign as a unique punctuation mark; R. Ammons uses colons as sound symbols to create emphasis; punctuation marks like semicolons in Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" clarify meaning and add pauses.
Additional Notes
diacritical mark: A sign placed above or below a character or letter to indicate a difference in pronunciation, stress, or meaning (e.g., the acute accent in résumé or the umlaut in naïve). Context: While less common in modern English poetry, they are vital in older verse or in non-English poetry to signal proper meter or pronunciation for the reader (e.g., marking a syllable as stressed for scansion).
Also Known As
Accent mark diacritical sign accentual mark phonetic sign Cedilla
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