> What's really absurd about English is the contempt for diacritical marks.

Not just English, but also Chinese. Pinyin was originally specified as having marks over the vowels:

  āáǎà ēéěè īíǐì ōóǒò ūúǔù üǖǘǚǜ

But although you see pinyin used a lot in mainland China alongside Chinese characters, you virtually never see those diacritics, just:

  a e i o u v

where v is used instead of ü.