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How is the letter ' ö ' pronounced?

In German it is pronounced as a u and in Swedish it is pronounced as a œ

How Is it pronounced in English?

Why does it need a special symbol at all? Why can or Why cannot the names of German/Swedish people do without this symbol?

Wikipedia :

""Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels [ø] or [œ]. In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified [o]."

"The character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break" What does this mean?

How Does the O with an umlaut differ from an o with a diaeresis?

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3  
First of all, in German "ö" is not pronounced as "u". Secondly, Wikipedia has dedicated articles on diaeresis and umlaut. Lastly, your very own quote hints at the difference. Umlauts are about changing the sound (whence the name, "um" + "laut"). Diaeresis is about not changing the sound. Again, see Wikipedia, complete with examples. So what is left is "Why cannot the names of German/Swedish people do without this symbol?" which is off-topic here as this site is about English. – RegDwighт♦ May 10 '12 at 13:33
See this discussion of diaeresis use in an earlier ELU question. – JLG May 10 '12 at 13:37
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The Swedish letter "ö" is distinct from the "o" in that language - it is not o+umlaut or o+diaeresis, and is the last letter of the alphabet (after z, å and ä). It is, strictly speaking, incorrect for English writers to use "o" just because "ö" is more difficult to type. – DavidR May 10 '12 at 13:39

closed as general reference by RegDwighт♦ May 10 '12 at 13:34

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