I'm hoping some of you language mavens can help me out. This question has been driving me nuts for years. What's up with using an umlaut in the english language? Is this strange diacritical marking really part of proper english? I've seen it used in the New Yorker for years now, but everytime I ask someone it's like they don't believe me. Now I see that the Red Herring (tech business magazine) is using them too. (I saw: "Reëlection") Does everybody use them, and I've just never fnord noticed? Is it just some sort of ivy league pseudo european posturing? What's the deal?
my initial research leads me to believe that the usage of the umlaut in certain germanic languages developed after old english had shot off the tree. so any use in english is pretension, winking blinking or otherwise.
what does the oed say?
well, i'm feeling too lazy right now to pull out the oed, or even the chicago manual of style (still haven't ever unpacked all my books) but cooperation, reelection, etc. tend to get the umlaut, and i suspect this is primarily for readability purposes. all right, let me try to find them. now i'm curious. damn library school.
umlaut /'umlaut/ n & v. M19. [G, f um- about + Laut sound.] A n. 1 Philol. Vowel change arising historically by partial assimilation to an adjacent sound, usu. a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable (often now lost), as is German Mann, Mannner, or English man, men. Also called (vowel) mutation. M19. 2 A dialectical sign placed over a vowel, esp. in Germanic languages, to indicate such a change. M20. B v. Philol. 1 v.t. Modify (a form or sound) by (an) umlaut. M19. 2 v.i. Undergo such a modification. L20.
O.K., if anybody spies any publication using this convention I'd appreciate a listing to this thread. As long as it's just the New Yorker I can chalk it up to harmless pretention. But if this thing starts spreading then I want to know what is going on.
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- jim 11-13-2000 5:40 pm
my initial research leads me to believe that the usage of the umlaut in certain germanic languages developed after old english had shot off the tree. so any use in english is pretension, winking blinking or otherwise.
- dave 11-13-2000 8:41 pm [add a comment]
what does the oed say?
- dave 11-13-2000 8:43 pm [add a comment]
well, i'm feeling too lazy right now to pull out the oed, or even the chicago manual of style (still haven't ever unpacked all my books) but cooperation, reelection, etc. tend to get the umlaut, and i suspect this is primarily for readability purposes. all right, let me try to find them. now i'm curious. damn library school.
umlaut /'umlaut/ n & v. M19. [G, f um- about + Laut sound.] A n. 1 Philol. Vowel change arising historically by partial assimilation to an adjacent sound, usu. a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable (often now lost), as is German Mann, Mannner, or English man, men. Also called (vowel) mutation. M19. 2 A dialectical sign placed over a vowel, esp. in Germanic languages, to indicate such a change. M20. B v. Philol. 1 v.t. Modify (a form or sound) by (an) umlaut. M19. 2 v.i. Undergo such a modification. L20.
- linda 11-14-2000 1:53 am [add a comment]
so i guess the action of umlaut may exist in english but we arent in the habit of noting it with the diacritical mark. maybe this will help, and maybe it wont. (forgot the link)
- dave 11-14-2000 7:48 am [add a comment]
O.K., if anybody spies any publication using this convention I'd appreciate a listing to this thread. As long as it's just the New Yorker I can chalk it up to harmless pretention. But if this thing starts spreading then I want to know what is going on.
- jim 11-14-2000 3:17 pm [add a comment]