On 14/01/2008, John Douglas Porter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > From the keyboard of Yanick Champoux [12.01.08,18:50]: > > *dieresis* or *diæresis *A diacritical mark (* ¨ *) optionally > used in > > English, oftentimes replaced by a hyphen. In English, the dieresis > is used on > > a second identical vowel to indicate a change in pronunciation of > that vowel > > or indicate it is pronounced in a separate syllable. It is sometimes > referred > > to as an « umlaut » when used with a single character or in a « > diphthong. » > > Examples: reëlecting, reëncoding, coöperation, coördination. >
Also naïf and naïve - non-identical vowels. > I want to clarify (only because I myself was confused at first) > that an umlaut can be used IN a diphthong, but does not have > any function in MAKING a diphthong. For example, the > German diphthong "au" becomes "äu" due to umlaut, (or "vowel > shifting"). > In summary, umlaut and dieresis/diaeresis (also trema) are both diacritical marks. Same symbol, but different meaning, where the meaning of the symbol depends on the context. The rule seems to be: second vowel of a pair=dieresis, otherwise umlaut. Any counter-examples? > Unless I am mistaken. Same here... > -- > John Douglas Porter > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. > http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs >
