For web page makers (haceks and ogoneks)

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Just if you are interested in the etymologies of ogonek and hacek:


on 19 June  2000 Bob wrote

> Ogonek is what I think John calls the little subscript hook that
> goes in the opposite direction to a cedilla.
> They're used for the nasal vowels of Polish
> (and by Americanists for nasal V's also).  Ogonek may be Polish.
> It always seemed strange to me since in Slavic it should
> mean "little fire" and in Russian
> it's always been the name of a variety/humor/satire magazine.

on 18 June 2000 John wrote

> Maybe it means 'flame'?  I think I got it from a reputable source, but


Ogonek comes from Polish and it means "little tail" (from ogon - "tail"),
apparently giving the idea of a vowel having a tail. "Fire" is "ogien^" in
Polish.
Russian for fire is ogo'n^ I am not sure what the diminutive would be, but
assume ogo'n^ok.

Hacek (originally ha'c^ek) comes from Czech and it means "little hook" (from
ha'k - hook). Haceks were invented by a Czech priest and scholar by the name
of Jan Hus hwo was burned at a stake as a heretic in July 1415. By haceks he
wanted to simplify the Czech transcription that used digraphs untill then
(cz
for c^, sz for s^, rz for r^ etc.). He also invented the stress mark and
thus changed "aa" for a' an so on. It did simplify the transcription, but in
the age of computers, fonts and Internet one wonders whether it would have
been better to keep the digraphs. Hopefully Unicode will solve this soon.

Jan