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Related to the article's form more than its topic, but "has humbly reëmerged, wanting to reëngage": I'm used to seeing "trémas" in French used for the very purp
by Biganon 6y ago
Related to the article's form more than its topic, but "has humbly reëmerged, wanting to reëngage": I'm used to seeing "trémas" in French used for the very purpose of avoiding the usual sound made by two neighboring letters, but I didn't know it was a thing in English.
- jaggederest 6y agoIt's a bit archaic, and unusual in places besides the New Yorker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)#English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)#English
- biztos 6y agoOT but as a German-speaking reader of the New Yorker this abuse of the Umlaut has been making me irrationally angry for decades. But it’s a nice reminder that if you want to, I dunno, capitalize only the word “Dog” and end every sentence in a comma, you might want to own a magazine, Dog,
- pdw 6y agoThe diaeresis is unrelated to the umlaut though, it's a notation borrowed from old Greek. It never quite caught on in English, but it's part of the standard orthography of many other languages.
- elcapitan 6y agoLike French, where it's fairly typical.
- goto11 6y agoIt has nothing to do with a German umlaut. It is a diaeresis, and its use in English is perfectly valid (if uncommon). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)#English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)#English