Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms: accents
accents
marks added to letters (as in é è ê ë) to indicate differences of pronunciation; said to have been introduced by Aristophanes of Byzantium c. 200 b.c. to preserve the pitch accent of ancient Greek, which was dying out. The only major languages that do not require accents are English and Latin.
Most computer software treats a letter with an accent as a single character. More sophisticated systems represent the accent and the letter separately, so that any accent can be put on any letter.
