Information AboutDiaeresis |
|
ä ë ï ö ü ẅ ÿ In Linguistics , a diaeresis, or '''dieresis''' ( AE ) (from Greek (diairein), ''to divide'') is the division of two adjacent Vowel s as two Syllable s rather than as a Diphthong . The opposite phenomenon is known as ''' Synaeresis '''. The Diacritic mark composed of two small dots ( ) placed over a vowel to indicate this modification is also called a ''' Diaeresis ''', or a '''trema'''. It replaces the single dot on "i". Orthography See Also: diaeresis (diacritic) In various languages, especially in Romance Languages , the diaeresis mark indicates that a vowel which would normally be pronounced together with the letter that precedes it should be read separately. In French , Greek and Dutch the diaeresis is placed on the second of two consecutive vowels to indicate that it is to be pronounced on its own, not left silent or merged into a Diphthong , as in the words ''coöperate'' and ''Anaïs''. Welsh also uses the diacritic for this purpose, with the diaeresis usually indicating the stressed vowel. French also uses the diaeresis to indicate syllabification in, for example, ''Gaëlle'' and ''païen''. It is called ''trema'' or ''deelteken'' in Dutch, ''tréma'' in French. The diaeresis has also occasionally been used in native English words for the above purposes (as in ''coöperate'', ''reënact'', ''naïve'', and ''noöne''), but this usage has become extremely rare since the 1940s . '' The New Yorker '', '' The Economist '' and MIT's '' Technology Review '' can be noted as some of the few publications that spell ''coöperate'' with a diaeresis. Its use in English today, apart from words borrowed from other languages, is mostly limited to certain names, such as the surname ''Brontë'' and the given names ''Chloë'' & ''Zoë''. In Spanish , it is used over the vowel ''u'' to indicate that it is pronounced in places where that vowel would normally be silent. In particular, the ''u'' is silent in the letter combinations ''gue'' and ''gui'', but in words such as ''vergüenza'' ("shame") or ''pingüino'' ("penguin"), the ''u'' is pronounced, forming a diphthong with the following vowel ( and [wi respectively). For instance, in Spanish, ''ge'' is pronounced /xe/, ''gue'' is pronounced /ge/ and ''güe'' is pronounced /gwe/. In Catalan , diaereses serve two different purposes. Similarly to Spanish, they are used in the groups ''güe'', ''güi'', ''qüe'', and ''qüi'' to indicate that the ''u'' is in fact pronounced forming a diphthong with the following vowel ( and [wi respectively). For example, ''aigües'' ("waters"), ''qüestió'' ("matter"). Also, similarly to French, diaereses are used over ''i'' or ''u'' to indicate that they do not form a diphthong with a preceding vowel. For example, ''veïna'' ("neighbour", feminine), ''diürn'' [di'urn ("diurnal"). Brazilian Portuguese uses the diaeresis like Spanish and also with letter combinations ''que'' and ''qui'', in words such as ''cinqüenta'' ("fifty") and ''qüinqüênio'' ("a five-year period"). The diaeresis is no longer used in the other varieties of Portuguese. There is some discussion about removing the diaeresis from Brazilian Portuguese and it is not uncommon to omit them (either intentionally or not) in newspapers and informal writing. A mixing of uses and letters can be standard for forms of Verb s). So, a word can be distinguished by the use (or not) of diaereses. Examples includes ''saiamos'' ( Subjunctive Present ) and ''saïamos'' ( Imperfect Present ), and other forms of verbs with Infinitive s that end on ''-oir'' (''oír'', "to listen"), ''-aer'' (''caer'', "to fall"), ''-oer'' (''moer'', "mill"), ''-air'' (''saír'', "to go out"), and so on. Ÿ can be used in transcribed αυ (alpha upsilon), e.g. in the Persian name ''Artaÿctes'' at the very end of Herodotus . See also |