Re: Umlauts (was Re: Elves and Ill Bethisad)

Ray Brown scripsit:

> >I suppose this is analogous to the "Brontë" example proferred by the
> >OED as also being diaerisis.
>
> which it strictly ain't.  I would think Brontë is analagous to Zoë;
The sisters' father, Patrick Brunty, seems to have adopted this spelling
because he thought it looked cool, so drawing conclusions from it is
not really sound.

> But the problem with calling the double-dot symbol diaeresis is that:
> (a) it is not always used to denote diaeresis (the Germans, e.g. use
> it to denote i-umlaut);
Nevertheless, the standards community has adopted "diaeresis" as the general
name, so we are stuck with it.  They also call the hacek "caron", and no one
knows why.

--
John Cowan  jcowan@reutershealth.com  http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
O beautiful for patriot's dream that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears!
America! America!  God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!
        -- one of the verses not usually taught in U.S. schools

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