Questions regarding glyphs that are added to letters, e.g. the acute accent (´) in résumé or the diaeresis (¨) in naïve.
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1answer
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Is the diaeresis legal in “naïve”? [duplicate]
I understand why naïve is spelled with two dots, and that those dots are called a diaeresis.
What I do not understand is whether the use of a diaeresis is legal in English; is it?
Other than ...
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2answers
78 views
What would Prof. William Strunk Jr. say about writing saute vs. sauté today? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Diacriticals and non-English letters in anglicized loan words: keep 'em, dump 'em, italicize the words, or what?
I have no idea what I’m doing. Catch as catch ...
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votes
0answers
54 views
What does the umlaut mean over the E in the name “Zoë”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Zoe” or “Zoë”: which is the correct spelling?
The ë in the name Zoë suggests that the e should be pronounced as a long a. The name is from the Greek goddess of ...
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votes
2answers
172 views
What are the different ways an accent mark can go over the letter A & how are they pronounced? [closed]
I've found specifically these ones: á, à, â, å, ä. I believe they COULD be used in the English language, or root ones such as Celtic & Germanic, but I don't know how they are pronounced.
Oh, and ...
5
votes
1answer
197 views
What do the letters ï and ô mean? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the distinction between “role” and “rôle” [with a circumflex]?
What is the significance of the “ô” character in “rôle” in this work?
What is the standard rule ...
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0answers
33 views
What is the proper way to spell résumé? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Should you always use the accent in foreign words like “résumé”?
Diacriticals and non-English letters in anglicized loan words: keep 'em, dump 'em, ...
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vote
3answers
3k views
Two dots on the “i” instead of one? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Whereäs” as an alternative spelling of “whereas”
Is it spelt “naïve” or “naive”?
Someone I talked to used two dots in this word:
...
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5answers
1k views
What is the standard rule for using or not using hyphen and diaeresis on the words like reelect , reexamine, and cooperate?
I found that diaeresis is used on the word, reelection in the following sentence of the article titled “Rational Irrationality” in the New Yorker magazine (April 27).
“This morning’s news that ...
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votes
1answer
335 views
How can I call these symbols in English? [closed]
I'm a programmer and I wonder how I can call these symbols in English:
~
|
^
`
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votes
1answer
268 views
Anglicization of diacritical marks and non-English letters
In my understanding, many European cultures have compensated for the lack of certain characters on keyboards (especially old typewriters) by “anglicizing” some characters. For example, the German ß ...
0
votes
1answer
287 views
What is the term which encompasses accents, umlauts, etc? [closed]
Is there a term that covers grave and acute accents, umlauts, cedillas, tildes and all other characters that can be added to normal letters.
I have come across the word diacritics. But this seems to ...
5
votes
1answer
197 views
What is the significance of the “ô” character in “rôle” in this work?
In this document from 1916, on the last line of the first page is the word rôle. If context matters, the entire sentence is:
As might readily be supposed, the control of the lactic acid ...
1
vote
1answer
134 views
What is the third 'quote' (inverted comma) called? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What are these symbols called? ~ ` ^
Most of use are familiar with " and ' but what is the third ` (same key as ~ on a standard US keyboard) character called, and how ...
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votes
3answers
3k views
Which is correct: “expose” or “exposé”?
What is the preferred way to write words such as exposé in English?
My Firefox spellchecker even tells me that exposé is incorrect and suggests expose.
If exposé is correct, then how does this sit ...
5
votes
2answers
481 views
0
votes
1answer
128 views
Where to use “!”, “;”, “`” [closed]
Where should I use the following symbols while writing something in English language?
! — exclamation mark
; — semicolon
` — grave accent
5
votes
1answer
173 views
Etymology of charlâtanerie
Can anyone provide me with the etymology and details of usage of the word charlâtanerie ? I came across this word while reading The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe.The following passage ...
12
votes
3answers
633 views
What does the grave accent mark on words mean?
What exactly does the grave accent mean in English?
An example from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30:
The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan
5
votes
4answers
281 views
Is spelling still drifting?
If you look at texts from a few hundred years ago, they’re almost illegible, what with all the superfluous e’s and y’s running about, the long-S’s ( ſ ), and so on. Texts from 100 and 120 years ago ...
4
votes
4answers
4k views
Why do some English speakers pronounce “fête” as “fate”?
In French, from whom we’ve borrowed the word, it’s /fɛt/ “fet”.
But if we pronounced it as if it were an English word after dropping the accent, it would be /fi:t/ “feet”.
Yet the pronunciation we ...
4
votes
6answers
10k views
“Zoe” or “Zoë”: which is the correct spelling?
I have a relation who has named their child Zoe, on the grounds that “in English we don’t use the dots”, but they pronounce it like the second version.
Of course I don’t want to argue that’s not the ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
Are there any pairs of words like “beloved”/“belovèd”, “learned”/“learnèd” that maintain a semantic difference to the present day?
When I first read Romeo and Juliet in high school, I remember being intrigued by pairs of words such as,
beloved/belovèd
and
learned/learnèd
where there's an accent grave on the 'e' of ...
3
votes
2answers
738 views
Why is “sauté” spelled with an accent and “repartee” not?
Why are these words spelled differently? They have the same sound at the end, right?
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votes
2answers
460 views
Should I write “repartee” with an accent?
Does repartee need an accent with it in writing? Also, what does it mean?
Edit: Can you please provide an example sentence or two? I'd really appreciate it!
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votes
1answer
323 views
Authoritative source on the diaeresis trema rule [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Whereäs” as an alternative spelling of “whereas”
I've got an impression that there is (or was) a rule in English:
If you have a rarely ...
5
votes
3answers
526 views
Contemporary native English words with diacritics
As I understand, ö in coöperation is considered archaic (or is it?) and words like résumé, cliché and naïve are copied directly from foreign languages.
Are there any contemporary native ...
8
votes
3answers
3k views
What is the distinction between “role” and “rôle” [with a circumflex]?
One of our users, Stan Rogers, mentioned there was such a distinction, I think, when he answered a question and talked about how the orthography of foreign loan-words typically changes to conform with ...
11
votes
5answers
859 views
Diacriticals and non-English letters in anglicized loan words: keep 'em, dump 'em, italicize the words, or what?
Take an expression like déjà vu. This is a French term which is frequently seen in English. In fact, it is included in English dictionaries. But it is often seen in English in a variety of forms:
...
16
votes
8answers
2k views
How should foreign words (with foreign characters) be written in English text?
This question is not about italicisation or how to construct plurals. I wonder what are general guidelines for writing foreign words based on a Latin alphabet in English text. I know that, for ...
19
votes
4answers
1k views
“Whereäs” as an alternative spelling of “whereas”
Wiktionary shows whereäs as a valid alternative spelling of the word whereas (see here).
It gives the following quotations to illustrate the usage:
1 Permanent International Association of ...
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votes
4answers
742 views
Should you always use the accent in foreign words like “résumé”?
You can see in the aboutCV page of Stackoverflow Careers site that the word resumes is mentioned -- Not résumés or résumés.
What should be the common practice here?
What about other words like café?
