diacritical marks WAS Re: Word (Phrase?) of the Year (so far)?; Rambo'd (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

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I had forgotten the line about Keyser Söze's father supposedly being German.

"Söze" doesn't sound particularly German, though (although I could buy into "Keyser" being German -- see "Kaiser"); and the characters in the film don't pronounce "Söze" the way Germans would pronounce a word with that spelling.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
> Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 4:49 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: diacritical marks WAS Re: Word (Phrase?) of the Year (so
> far)?; Rambo'd (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
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> Subject:      Re: diacritical marks WAS Re: Word (Phrase?) of the Year
> (so
>               far)?; Rambo'd (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Bill Mullins wrote:
> >>
> >> The Wikipedia entry for "The Usual Suspects uses the spelling Keyser
> >> Soze with an umlaut over the o. Jonathan Lighter sent a message to
> >> the list on June 2, 2011 about the "Keyser Soeze syndrome" that is
> > somewhat
> >> similar.  Dan Goncharoff sent a message about the "Keyser Soeze
> >> syndrome" which concerns twist endings for films
> >>
> >
> > From my high school German, I remember that an umlaut is the
> > double-dot that goes over o (for the OE sound), the u (UE), and a
> > (AE).  "Keyser Soze" (and the "o" in "Soze" had a double-dot) was a
> > Turkish name, I believe.  Should it still be called an umlaut?  Is
> > "umlaut" the general name for a double-dot mark over a vowel?  (or
> > possibly consonants, as in "Spinal Tap", in which case the "n" had a
> > double-dot?)
>
> The (sometimes accurate) Wikipedia has an entry for Keyser Söze.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> According to "Verbal" Kint, who points out that Keyser Söze's father is
> believed to have been German, Söze was once a petty drug dealer who
> began his criminal career in his native Turkey.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Is the last name supposed to be Turkish or German? Did Verbal Kint
> construct enough of a backstory to specify this?
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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