4 ms·

Is it my fault for too much coffee and being irritable or is the article extremely difficult to read?

• kazinator 12y ago
  But think how much harder, still, it would be without the snooty diaeresis on "coöperation".
  • nitrogen 12y ago
    That is simply part of the style of some publications.
    • kazinator 12y ago
      It is not style. It's just a way of saying, "we are above all the philistine modifications that have damaged the English language and its orthography for over a century". Style occurs when you use word choice to impress the reader, not when you place some outdated droppings over a letter which you regard as compulsory. They use the diaeresis because they regard its absence to be incorrect. Which means that they regard everyone who writes "cooperation" as committing an error. Hence, snooty. I wonder, do these pompous pricks tell their children to write that way in school? Or answer that way in spelling bees? I can just see it: "Hey Johnny, spell cooperation!" "Cee, oh, oh-with-a-diaeresis, pee, ...". Or maybe they feed them crap like, "Johnny, at school, just play along and use the dumb spelling okay? But between us at home, we know better, don't we! We write it as coöperation with the two dots." "Dad, you mean among us, don't you?" "No, I mean between. Mommy left a note that she won't be coming home any more, so it's just you and me. Pardon me, you and I."
  • stefantalpalaru 12y ago
    It is known that the umlaut makes everything cööler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_umlaut http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_umlaut
• teh_klev 12y ago
  No, not just you, I found it pretty hard to keep on track with it. Not often I say that about New Yorker articles.