6 ms·

I've never seen "coöperator" spelled with a diaeresis before. Apparently it's a New Yorker house style: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-

by rtb 10y ago

I've never seen "coöperator" spelled with a diaeresis before. Apparently it's a New Yorker house style: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-t...

maweki 10y ago
As a German, I was thoroughly confused by that.
- pmiller2 10y ago
  I am giggling right now imagining someone trying to pronounce that the German way. :)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - wott 10y ago
    That's how I read it first. I had to move backwards a few words later :-)
- Cthulhu_ 10y ago
  As a Dutchman, it looked natural to me. (coöperatie is the Dutch word for corporation and a fancy word for coöperation)
arximboldi 10y ago
Interesting! We have similar diaeresis in Spanish. But on the other hand, given English's spelling ambiguity and lack of overall consistency, I wonder what is the point of using this nowadays... But I guess, that article also wonders :D
- deleted 10y ago
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- wott 10y ago
  > We have similar diaeresis in Spanish. Besides ü?
  - arximboldi 10y ago
    You are right, only ü to break the gue and gui forms. The "diptongos" containing a weak-strong vowel combination may be broken into a "hiato" with an accent, such as: vía vs via.
pge 10y ago
This usage is correct but dropped by almost all publications, as it has fallebln out of usage (perhaps in the era of the typewriter which didn't have the necessary keys?). The New Yorker is one of the few major publications that still does it. The dieresis is used any time there are two consecutive vowels that are not voiced as a diphthong (the difference between cooperate and a coop where you keep chickens). "Cooperate" and "naive" seem to be the most common affected words (with the latter sometimes retaining the dieresis in publications that don't otherwise employ it).
- grzm 10y ago
  I find language esoterica very interesting. The New Yorker uses diaeresis¹ with the prefix re as well, such as reëlect, reëstablish, and reëxamine.² http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-t... We do change our style from time to time. My predecessor (and the former keeper of the comma shaker) told me that she used to pester the style editor, Hobie Weekes, who had been at the magazine since 1928, to get rid of the diaeresis. She found it fussy. She said that once, in the elevator, he told her he was on the verge of changing that style and would be sending out a memo soon. And then he died. This was in 1978. No one has had the nerve to raise the subject since. --- ¹ Or should that be diæresis? ² Speaking of style guides: Ooh, look! An Oxford comma!
deleted 10y ago
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by rtb 10y ago

maweki 10y ago

As a German, I was thoroughly confused by that.

pmiller2 10y ago
I am giggling right now imagining someone trying to pronounce that the German way. :)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- wott 10y ago
  That's how I read it first. I had to move backwards a few words later :-)
Cthulhu_ 10y ago
As a Dutchman, it looked natural to me. (coöperatie is the Dutch word for corporation and a fancy word for coöperation)

arximboldi 10y ago

Interesting! We have similar diaeresis in Spanish. But on the other hand, given English's spelling ambiguity and lack of overall consistency, I wonder what is the point of using this nowadays... But I guess, that article also wonders :D

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
wott 10y ago
> We have similar diaeresis in Spanish. Besides ü?
- arximboldi 10y ago
  You are right, only ü to break the gue and gui forms. The "diptongos" containing a weak-strong vowel combination may be broken into a "hiato" with an accent, such as: vía vs via.

pge 10y ago

This usage is correct but dropped by almost all publications, as it has fallebln out of usage (perhaps in the era of the typewriter which didn't have the necessary keys?). The New Yorker is one of the few major publications that still does it. The dieresis is used any time there are two consecutive vowels that are not voiced as a diphthong (the difference between cooperate and a coop where you keep chickens). "Cooperate" and "naive" seem to be the most common affected words (with the latter sometimes retaining the dieresis in publications that don't otherwise employ it).

grzm 10y ago
I find language esoterica very interesting. The New Yorker uses diaeresis¹ with the prefix re as well, such as reëlect, reëstablish, and reëxamine.² http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-t... We do change our style from time to time. My predecessor (and the former keeper of the comma shaker) told me that she used to pester the style editor, Hobie Weekes, who had been at the magazine since 1928, to get rid of the diaeresis. She found it fussy. She said that once, in the elevator, he told her he was on the verge of changing that style and would be sending out a memo soon. And then he died. This was in 1978. No one has had the nerve to raise the subject since. --- ¹ Or should that be diæresis? ² Speaking of style guides: Ooh, look! An Oxford comma!

deleted 10y ago

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