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

>Ray Brown scripsit:
>
>>  Strictly speaking the double-dot superscript
>>  diacritic is called _trema_.  The terms 'umlaut'
>>  and 'di(a)eresis' refer to _uses_ of the trema.
I couldn't find "trema" in the OED, though "diaerisis" and "umlaut"
were certainly there.

>In Spanish, and in certain Catalan uses, u-trema simply
>indicates that the u is pronounced as /w/ rather than
>being a mere indicator that the preceding "g" is /g/.
>Catalan also uses a French-style diaeresis.
French has both usages, each of which I surmise the OED calls
"diaerisis". As has been discussed earlier, it separates vowels:

Noël, maïs /mais/ (vs. mais /mE/)

but is also used as in John's Spanish example:

if the feminine of "ambigu" or "exigu" were written without tréma, it
would yield "ambigue" (/a~mbig/) and "exigue" (/egzig/). To retain
pronunciation of the "u", tréma is added:

ambigüe (a~mbigy), exigüe (/egzigy/)

I suppose this is analogous to the "Brontë" example proferred by the
OED as also being diaerisis.

Kou

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