Despite its inconsistencies, English spelling is characterised by its simplicity, without accents except in French words like naïve, rôle and a few others.

French spelling has four diacritical marks: the acute accent, the grave accent, the circumflex and the tréma, all affecting pronunciation, plus the cedilla under a c to form an ‘s’ sound as in François and garçon.

Italian spelling features two accents: the acute accent and the grave accent.

The grave accent has even been borrowed by Maltese spelling.

Hence, it is incorrect to print certain words without an accent, as in carità/karità, qualità/kwalità, verità, cafè/kafè, Andrè, and Cefalù/Tal-Virtù.

Modern-day printing practices and writing betrays a laxity which however, professional correctness does not accept.

Let us then reintroduce accents wherever they are required for the sake of precision.

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