The Scrivener
| Publication year | 2022 |
| Pages | 60 |
THE SCRIVENER
Accent on Writing: Diacritics
By Scott Moise
My mother was a French teacher, and after I made a "C" in my French class in the seventh grade, thus thoroughly embarrassing the family (well, only Momma was embarrassed, but she was embarrassed enough for the whole family), she took over my foreign language education, which included weekly home tests on spelling, vocabulary, and verb conjugations. Also, my last name—Moise—has an accent mark. So between spending hours every week on all things French and continually answering questions from friends about the meaning of the two little dots over the "i" in my name, diacritics took on an unusually large meaning in my life.
Accent marks, or the lack of them, have also been the subject of legal arguments. For example, defendants have challenged the lack or inclusion of accent marks in names and words when arguing that they were not accorded due process, were not properly warned, were not properly served with process, or that they did not violate a competitor's trademark. See, e.g., Master Card Int'l Inc. v. Trehan, 629 F. Supp. 2d 824, 829 (N.D. Ill. 2009) (considering accent marks when determining whether an infringing domain name was the same in sound and meaning as that of its competitor); N.L.R.B. v. Metro-Truck Body, Inc., 613 F.2d 746 (9th Cir. 1979) (finding that the NLRB properly counted the word "SI" as a vote in favor of union representation, and rejecting the company's argument that—because the Spanish word for "yes" is written "si" with an accent mark over the "I" and the Spanish word for "if" is written "si" with a dot over the "i"—the accentless markings on the two ballots were ambiguous and the ballots thus void); Ortiz v. Avante Villa at Corpus Christi, Inc., 926 S.W.2d 608, 612-13 (Tex. App. 1996) (finding that service of process was adequate despite omission of accent mark and substitution of the symbol "@" for the word "at" and refusing to overturn a default judgment); Commonwealth v. Perez, 411 Mass. 249, 255, 581 N.E.2d 1010, 1014-15 (Mass. 1991) (finding that "slight ambiguities in a few of the Spanish words on the [Miranda] cards, the use of one colloquial Spanish term, and the lack of accent marks" did not interfere with meaning of warnings).
Also, getting proper names correct is important in any profession, so take time to get to know accent marks, as they appear in many names throughout our state and beyond. Some names are harder than others. For instance, Family Court Judge Michele Patrao Forsythe's name is somewhat intimidating because it has two diacritical marks, both of which are difficult unless you have taken a lot of foreign language classes. For anyone who has struggled with getting Judge Forsythe's name spelled and pronounced...
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