use of diarhesis
Jack E. Warner
spelling), the character that looks like an umlaut on words such as
co\"operate, re\"adjust, etc. i have been searching in books for rules on
when to use this mark and can't find any reference to it (can't even find
it in the dictionary!), though i seem to \it{intuit} when to use it.
also i like to use the a-e, o-e (and f-i, f-l, f-f, f-f-i, f-f-l) ligatures
when they \it{should} be used as in kin\aesthesia, man\oeuvre, etc. is this
considered old-fashioned or does it reflect good use? if anyone knows of
other accents used in english or can direct me to some reference material
on these issues i would appreciate it.
post to this group or e-male me at jwa...@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu
thanks a meg.
A. Satish Pai
I believe a diaeresis is used to indicate that the vowel to which it applies
is sounded separately without merging with the preceding vowel.
'Coordinate' has the diaeresis (or used to) over the second 'o' to show that
it is not to be pronounced along with the first 'o' in a one long 'oo' sound.
Similarly with the 'a' in 'readjust', where it has a sound separate from that
of the 'e'. I think the use of the diaeresis makes the text look distinctly
old-fashioned, however. :-)
-Satish
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Roger Phillips
asi...@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov) writes:
> The diaresis (spelled "diaresis" and pronounced DIE ERR' UH SIS)
Oh, yeah? If this is an altered US spelling,
it's a strange change to turn "diaeresis" into "diaresis"
rather than the expected "dieresis".
(Chambers lists "diaeresis" and "dieresis",
with no geographical qualification.)
> The diaresis is usually considered optional, since it functions
> as a reminder. Personally, I like to always use it when it occurs
> in proper names like
> _ _
> Chloe or Zoe (please think of the overbar as a diaresis).
_
I only use it in people's names if they do. Noel Coward did.
Noel Edmonds doesn't.
--
Roger Phillips ro...@quantime.co.uk
"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about,
and that is not being talked about." -- Oscar Wilde
Mark Slagle
> i have been wondering about the use of the diarhesis (not sure of the
One word fer ya: Kaopectate.
Sorry, it was late and I couldn't help myself.
--
----
Mark E. Slagle PO Box 61059
sla...@lmsc.lockheed.com Sunnyvale, CA 94088
408-756-0895 USA
Dan Tilque
>asi...@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov) writes:
>> The diaresis (spelled "diaresis" and pronounced DIE ERR' UH SIS)
>
>Oh, yeah? If this is an altered US spelling,
>it's a strange change to turn "diaeresis" into "diaresis"
>rather than the expected "dieresis".
It's not an American spelling; it's a misspelling.
>(Chambers lists "diaeresis" and "dieresis",
>with no geographical qualification.)
As do American dictionaries. But they can't agree on the preferred
form. Merriam-Webster likes "diaeresis" while American Heritage and
Random House prefer "dieresis". I note that British dictionaries can't
agree either. Chambers prefers with the 'a'; Collins without. I guess
there's no Offical English English (tm) spelling of this word. What
does this do to Mandar's theory, I wonder?
---
Dan Tilque -- da...@techbook.com
Daniel A. Asimov
>In article <1992Aug3.2...@nas.nasa.gov>,
>asi...@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov) writes:
>> The diaresis (spelled "diaresis" and pronounced DIE ERR' UH SIS)
>
>Oh, yeah? If this is an altered US spelling,
>it's a strange change to turn "diaeresis" into "diaresis"
>rather than the expected "dieresis".
>(Chambers lists "diaeresis" and "dieresis",
>with no geographical qualification.)
>
>> The diaresis is usually considered optional, since it functions
>> as a reminder. Personally, I like to always use it when it occurs
>> in proper names like
>> _ _
>> Chloe or Zoe (please think of the overbar as a diaresis).
> _
>I only use it in people's names if they do. Noel Coward did.
>Noel Edmonds doesn't.
>--
>Roger Phillips ro...@quantime.co.uk
Boy, was I ever wrong on this. (Actually, it was a consistent typo
that I made: I had intended to hit the ae diphthong key on my
keyboard, but kept missing and hit the a key. (:-)> )
As Roger Phillips says,
the *actual* correct spelling of diaeresis is "diaeresis"
(where, ideally, the ae is printed as a diphthong).
Or alternatively, "dieresis."
--Daz
Frank R.A.J. Maloney
[deletion]
>
>
>The diaresis (spelled "diaresis" and pronounced DIE ERR' UH SIS)
>rather than together with the previous vowel. It is printed the same
>as an umlaut--a double dot over a letter--but has a different role.
>
As has already been pointed out, the word is spelt either
diaeresis or dieresis. Try checking a dictionary whenever
you feel especially assertive; I do.
>The diaresis is usually considered optional, since it functions
>as a reminder. Personally, I like to always use it when it occurs
>in proper names like
> _ _
>Chloe or Zoe (please think of the overbar as a diaresis).
>
For common nouns in English, the pattern is usually that the marker
that double vowels are to be pronounced separately, whether that marker
is a hyphen ("co-operate") or a diaeresis ("co\:operate", as it were),
tends to disappear as the word becomes accepted and commonplace
("cooperate").
As a matter of personal taste, I find that use (or overuse) of
diaereses tends towards the pretentious, unless there is some
overriding reason for its use, as would be the case with a newly coined
or foreign word that is not yet fully naturalized. For example, if I
were an editor I would have to question na\:ive in a manuscript;
"naive" is fully naturalized and the diacritical help unnecessary. But
I think words like o\:ocyte and o\:ogenesis are sufficiently unfamiliar
to the general reader, at least, to justify the diaeresis.
One has only to look at the relationship between the growing fortunes
of the father of the famous Bronte sisters and the growing diacriticism
of the family name to perceive the relationship between diacritics and
pretension.
BTW, the overbar, so-called, might be better termed a macron.
--
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
"Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda
Frank R.A.J. Maloney
>
>As Roger Phillips says,
>the *actual* correct spelling of diaeresis is "diaeresis"
>(where, ideally, the ae is printed as a diphthong).
>Or alternatively, "dieresis."
>
I apologize for correcting twice in one day, but this is a group that
thrives of precision, right?
Instead, of writing diphthong you would have been more correct to write
ligature. Diphthong is a phonetics term describing a complex sound made
by gliding continuously from the position for one vowel to that for
another within the same syllable. Examples include ou in house, oi in
coil.
Note that neither of these diphthongs is written or printed as a
ligature and yet they are surely diphthongs.
A ligature in the writing and printing sense can be two or more letters
combined into one character. Examples would be, if this were not such a
typographically limited system we're using, ae, oe, as you note, but
also (in some font families) fi, ffi, and fl. In some non-English
languages ae and oe may be diphthongs and they may be printed as
ligatures, however I don't know of any English word in which ae or oe
is other than an historical holdover and is often pronounced as a
simple long e. On the other hand the ligatures fi, ffi, and fl are not
diphthongs in any language (by definition, since they do not join two
vowels).
As a matter of personal taste, I find the use of ligatured diphthongs
in English words to be somewhat pretentious and to be avoided in
general.