ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the function of diacritics. Diacritics have three functions: Diacritics integral to a word, Diacritics mark case and Diacritics mark mood. Diacritics are typically short vowels interleaved between consonants in any word. Diacritics can also be used to indicate the lack of a vowel after a consonant or to indicate that a consonant is doubled. They are always present when a word is spoken. Although in the written form such internal diacritics are frequently not written, they are understood to be there. Case-marking diacritics provide an indication that is an overt mark to the syntactic function of nouns. A noun has three cases. These cases are: nominative case, accusative case, genitive case. Mood-marking diacritics provide an indication to the mood of imperfect verbs. By convention, an imperfect verb has three moods: the indicative, the subjunctive, and the jussive. For imperfect form verbs with one subject marker, mood-marking diacritics are located immediately following the last radical.
