Originally Posted by: Cryptic ExcretionsI think you've missed the point.
To say "the diatonic scale" is not what you're thinking. There is no set of intervals in a given order that is labeled "diatonic." You're getting it confused with C Major. C Major is a form of diatonic just like G Aeolian and just like Fb Lydian. Diatonic is just a broad description of all the Major and Minor scales as well as all of the modes that you can form out of them. Some of them have accidentals, but some don't. It just depends on the root note you use.

I know this. Its the pattern of intervals that I am referring to. And diatonic is the expression I am useing because all the diatonic scale variations follow this same pattern, just with diffrent starting points. What is the word you would use then( if accidental is not it) when scales vary from this pattern?