Accented letters

Letters which in English-speaking countries are by Printers called accented are the five vowels, marked as follows:—

Acute	á	é	í	ó	ú
Grave	à	è	ì	ò	ù
Circumflex	â	ê	î	ô	û
Long	ā	ē	ī	ō	ū
Short	ă	ĕ	ĭ	ŏ	ŭ
Diæresis	ä	ë	ï	ö	ü

There is no pure English word that requires an accent. Some reckon the French ç and Spanish ñ, and other letters used in foreign languages, as accented letters. The grave accent is, in English, sometimes used in poetry to prevent the omission of sounding a syllable, and the metre thereby being impaired. Similarly, the diæresis is sometimes employed in words like Coöperate, instead of the hyphen; but this plan is not generally adopted by many Printers at the present day. The term accent applied to the whole series is only allowable as an office technicality; the fourth and fifth items indicate quantity only, and the sixth guards against a dipthongal absorption of a syllable.