The introduction of additional diacritical marks, such as - and used to express quantity, and the diaeresis, as in ai, to express consecutive vowels, which are to be pronounced separately, may prove of service, as also such letters as a, o and ii, to be pronounced as in German, and in lieu of the French ai, eu or u.
An elaborate universal alphabet, abounding in diacritical marks, has been devised for the purpose by Professor Lepsius, and various other systems have been adopted for Oriental languages, and by certain missionary societies, adapted to the languages in which they teach.
Burmese, which was spoken by 7,006,495 people in the province in 1901, is a monosyllabic language, with, according to some authorities, three different tones; so that any given syllable may have three entirely different meanings only distinguishable by the intonation when spoken, or by accents or diacritical marks when written.
The Hebrew alphabet is also used, generally with the addition of some diacritical marks, by Jews to write other languages, chiefly Arabic, Spanish, Persian, Greek, Tatar (by Qaraites) and in later times German.
On the return of the army he proceeded to attack 1 Throughout this article, well-known names of persons and places appear in their most familiar forms, generally without accents or other diacritical signs.