Spurious "Quotes" and Apostrophe's

[Dfcoye at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 99-09-19 12:29:45 EDT, you write:

<< You had great instincts.  I just looked up "dieresis" and "umlaut" in the
 dictionary (RHUD and OED)--an unusual step, I realize!--and found that the
 former both etymologically and in conventional usage represents separation or
 division, the latter both etymologically and in conventional usage represents
 a modification of sound. >>


In other words as one of my professors used to point out, in German, the two
dots are not an umlaut, they indicate an umlaut (sound shift- back vowel in
Kuh, front vowel in Kuehe --where the e represents the umlaut when you can't
type the two dots, and by the way, the two dots are simply the vestiges of a
superimposed e in earlier manuscripts).   This same professor used to call
the two dots "Toetelchen" auf Deutsch.

Dale Coye
The College of NJ