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

Adam Walker wrote:
>
> > Costentin Cornomorus wrote:
> > In short, Noël is French, Noel/Nowel(l) is English,
> > Nöel is neither.
>
> It grates.  Sorta like the increasingly common
> spelling of cafe as c-a-f-e-'. Yes, with an apostrophe
> at the end rather than no mark at all or an acute over
> the e.
Back in the 1970s, I used to print business cards on an
old press in my garage. Several people ordered cards
from me to advertise their services doing macramé. They
always spelled it m-a-c-r-a-m-e-' with an apostrophe
(which I corrected when I set the type).

Recently I saw some hand-made jars for sale at an art
fair. They were lettered "jalapenõs."

Over the years, I've become amazed at the number of
people who have a four-year college degree, but have
never taken as much as one semester of a foreign
language in either college or high school. Invariably
they believe that learning another language simply
consists of memorizing long lists of corresponding
words with no thought that the grammars might be
different.

--Phillip Driscoll

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