Diacritics

Diacritics play a crucial role in many romanization schemes, allowing precise phonological representation of non‑Latin scripts. This article explains why diacritics are employed, outlines the governing standards, and offers practical guidance for their use.

Romanization systems often employ diacritics to accurately represent sounds absent in the Latin alphabet, maintain reversibility, and indicate tones or stress. This article explores the rationale, character tables, rules, and comparisons of major diacritic-based systems like Pinyin, IAST, and ISO 9.