ADS-L/NTY synergy, or umlaut

[Dennis R. Preston]

I like the idea that we must find lay (i.e., folk) terms as well as
us fancy linguists' terms, but I ain't all in accord with the claim
that a spoonerism is a metathesis (in fancy linguists' terms).

dInis (bein picky)s

>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

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736