English and Diacritical Marks

beneficii   Sun Dec 06, 2009 7:12 am GMT
I have returned to ask these 2 questions, these 2 questions humbly of all of you:

In English, where are diacritical marks required in order for a writing to be generally considered to have been written according to a proper style?

Why are diacritical marks not (really) used in English, but tend to be used extensively in seemingly all other languages that use the Latin alphabet as their script?
umlauteer wannabe   Sun Dec 06, 2009 7:36 am GMT
In the past, you used to see a diaeresis in some words:

coop (to distinguish it from coop)

Bootes

coordinate

oology

vacuum

I think these are no longer used, because of computers and the difficulty in typing them. In English, words are not spelled phonetically anyway, so why bother with accent marks at all?
Clergyman   Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:04 am GMT
And God said:

"Let there be diacritical marks."

Áñd thérè wêrë díàcïtiçal mãrks.
Wayas   Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:44 pm GMT
Nice ass
The Answer   Sun Dec 06, 2009 7:16 pm GMT
<<In English, where are diacritical marks required in order for a writing to be generally considered to have been written according to a proper style?>>

In English, diacritic marks are never needed, even in the most formal of writings. Using such would only be for the purpose of deliberately attempting to harken back to an earlier style, or to make a writing appear archaic for effect.



<<Why are diacritical marks not (really) used in English, but tend to be used extensively in seemingly all other languages that use the Latin alphabet as their script? >>

Because English does not use Latin script, but Carolingian (Frankish) script, which is the further evolution of the old Latin script still used by some continental European languages (like Spanish).
Guest   Sun Dec 06, 2009 10:15 pm GMT
<Why are diacritical marks not (really) used in English>

Because English has retained old spellings, instead of replacing silent or disused letters with diacritics.