ADS-L/NTY synergy, or umlaut

[Mark A. Mandel]

James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM> writes:

>>>>>
Sorry, in the English I was taught, dieresis the name
of this diacritical mark, and it is used to separate
adjacent vowels into separate syllables.  I remember
learning the distinction between umlaut and dieresis
in high school back in the 60's, when a friend who had
learned to call this diacritical mark an umlaut in
German class was corrected for calling it an umlaut in
English class.
<<<<<

Okay, "dieresis" is technically correct for its use in English on English
words, surely one of its rarest uses of it for many linguists. What do you
call it on a typewriter or in a font, or when you see it in a word or
language in which you don't know its function? If someone chooses to use it
in a different way than either of these -- say, over a 'p' to indicate a
voiceless bilabial trill, or in mathematics to mean something totally
non-linguistic -- what will you call the mark itself then? Unless you're
willing either to throw up your hands and say it has no name, or to call it
"dieresis or umlaut" (or something like "double-dot") every time you
mention it, you have to choose one. I opt for the one that's better known.

And given that, I'm willing to use "umlaut" as a legitimate *lay* name for
the mark itself, just as I prefer to say "spoonerism" instead of
"metathesis" when I'm not talking to other linguists.

One might argue that "umlaut" and "dieresis" mean different things in a way
that "spoonerism" and "metathesis" do not. I would reply that they mean
different things phonologically, but not graphically.

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com