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Article: Diacritical marks in mineral names: at least 168 mineral species names should properly include diacritical marks if they are to conform perfectly with the spelling approved by the commission on new minerals and mineral names (now the commission on new minerals, nomenclature and classification) of the international Mineralogical Association.
- Article from:
- The Mineralogical Record
- Article date:
- May 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 The Mineralogical, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For several years I have been growing increasingly concerned about the problem of the omission of diacritical marks that should be included in some mineral names. English is one of the few European languages that does not generally require the use of diacritical marks, except for a few borrowed words such as cafe (the dots on i and j have no significance) and a rarely used dieresis. For this reason, most English-speaking people in North America seem inclined to ignore all diacritical marks in foreign words and names.
The fact is, however, that the official names for minerals are those which were approved by the IMA, and diacritical marks abound among these. Such ...