Diaeresis (diacritic)#Printing conventions in German

The word diaeresis is from Greek {{lang|grc-Latn|diaíresis}} ({{lang|grc|διαίρεσις}}), meaning "division", "separation", or "distinction".{{LSJ|diai/resis|διαίρεσις|ref}}

The word trema ({{langx|fr|tréma}}), used in linguistics and also classical scholarship, is from the Greek {{lang|grc-Latn|trē̂ma}} ({{lang|grc|τρῆμα}}) and means a "perforation", "orifice", or "pip" (as on dice),{{LSJ|trh{{=}}ma|τρῆμα|ref}} thus describing the form of the diacritic rather than its function.

In Greek, two dots, called a trema, were used in the Hellenistic period on the letters {{lang|grc|ι}} and {{lang|grc|υ}}, most often at the beginning of a word, as in {{lang|grc|ϊδων}}, {{lang|grc|ϋιος}}, and {{lang|grc|ϋβριν}}, to separate them from a preceding vowel.{{cn|date=June 2023}} This was needed because writing was {{lang|la|scriptio continua}}, where spacing was not yet used as a word divider.{{cn|date=July 2023}} However, it was also used to indicate that a vowel formed its own syllable (in phonological hiatus), as in {{lang|grc|ηϋ}} and {{lang|grc|Αϊδι}}.{{cite book |first=William A. |last=Johnson |date=2013 |title=Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus |pages=343 |publisher=University of Toronto Press}}{{cite book |editor-first=Roger S. |editor-last=Bagnall |date=2011 |pages=262 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology |isbn=9780199843695}}

The diaeresis was borrowed for this purpose in several languages of western and southern Europe, among them Occitan, Catalan, French, Dutch, Welsh, and (rarely) English. As a further extension, some languages began to use a diaeresis whenever a vowel letter was to be pronounced separately. This included vowels that would otherwise form digraphs with consonants or simply be silent. For example, in the orthographies of Spanish, Catalan, French, Galician and Occitan, the graphemes gu and qu normally represent a single sound, {{IPA|[ɡ]}} or {{IPA|[k]}}, before the front vowels e and i (or before nearly all vowels in Occitan). In the few exceptions where the u is pronounced, a diaeresis is added to it.

Examples:

• Spanish {{lang|es|pingüino}} {{IPA|es|piŋˈɡwino|}} "penguin"
• Catalan {{lang|ca|aigües}} {{IPA|ca|ˈajɣwəs|}} "waters", {{lang|ca|qüestió}} {{IPA|ca|kwəstiˈo|}} "matter, question"
• Occitan {{lang|oc|lingüista}} {{IPA|oc|liŋˈɡwistɔ|}} "linguist", {{lang|oc|aqüatic}} {{IPA|oc|aˈkwatik|}} "aquatic"
• French {{lang|fr|aiguë}} or {{lang|fr|aigüe}} {{IPA|fr|eɡy|}} "acute (fem.)"
• : Note that the e is silent in most modern accents; without the diacritic, both the e and the u would be silent, or pronounced as a schwa in accents that have conserved all post-consonantal schwas, including in poetry recitation, as in the proper name {{lang|fr|Aigues-Mortes}} {{IPA|fr|ɛɡ(ə)mɔʁt(ə)|}}.
• Galician {{lang|gl|mingüei}} {{IPA|gl|miŋˈɡwej|}} "I shrank", {{lang|gl|saïamos}} "we went out/used to go out"
• Luxembourgish {{lang|lb|Chance}} {{IPA|lb|ˈʃɑ̃ːs|}} "opportunity", {{lang|lb|Chancë}} {{IPA|lb|ˈʃɑ̃ːsə|}} (before a consonant) "opportunities"
• Afrikaans {{lang|af|hoër}} "higher"
• Greek {{lang|el|γαϊδούρι}} {{IPA|el|[ɣajˈðuɾi]}} "Donkey"

This has been extended to Ganda, where a diaeresis separates y from n: {{lang|lg|anya}} {{IPA|lg|aɲa|}}, {{lang|lg|anÿa}} {{IPA|lg|aɲja|}}.

'Ÿ' is sometimes used in transcribed Greek, where it represents the Greek letter υ (upsilon) in hiatus with α. For example, it can be seen in the transcription {{transliteration|grc|Artaÿctes}} of the Persian name {{lang|grc|Ἀρταΰκτης}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|Artaüktēs}}) at the very end of Herodotus, or the name of Mount Taÿgetus on the southern Peloponnesus peninsula, which in modern Greek is spelled {{lang|el|Ταΰγετος}}.

In Catalan, the digraphs ai, ei, oi, au, eu, and iu are normally read as diphthongs. To indicate exceptions to this rule (hiatus), a diaeresis mark is placed on the second vowel: without this the words {{lang|oc|raïm}} {{IPA|[rəˈim]}} ("grape") and {{lang|oc|diürn}} {{IPA|[diˈurn]}} ("diurnal") would be read *{{IPA|[ˈrajm]}} and *{{IPA|[ˈdiwrn]}}, respectively. Diaeresis also indicates that ü is pronounced [w] in digraphs such as gü and qü when placed before e or i.

In Dutch, spellings such as {{lang|nl|cliënt}} are necessary because the digraphs oe and ie normally represent the simple vowels {{IPA|[u]}} and {{IPA|[i]}}, respectively. However, hyphenation is now preferred for compound words so that {{lang|nl|zeeëend}} (sea duck) is now spelled {{lang|nl|zee-eend}}.{{cite web |url=https://woordenlijst.org/#/?q=zee-eend |title=zee-eend |work=woordenlijst.org |access-date=2021-08-07}}

{{anchor|In English}}

In Modern English, the diaeresis, the grave accent and the acute accent are the only diacritics used apart from loanwords. It may be used optionally for words that do not have a morphological break at the diaeresis point, such as "naïve", "Boötes", and "Noël". It was previously used in words such as "coöperate" and "reënter":{{cite book |last=Burchfield |first=R.W. |title=Fowlers's Modern English Usage |edition=3 |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-869126-2 |page=210 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/210}} in such cases, the diaeresis has been replaced by the use of a hyphen ("co-operate", "re-enter"), particularly in British English, or by no indication at all ("cooperate", "reenter"), as in American English. The use of the diaeresis persists in a few publications, notably The New Yorker[http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19981209 diaeresis: December 9, 1998]. The Mavens' Word of the Day. Random House.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis |date=2012-04-26 |first=Mary |last=Norris |title=The Curse of the Diaeresis |magazine=The New Yorker |quote=The special tool we use here at The New Yorker for punching out the two dots that we then center carefully over the second vowel in such words as “naïve” and “Laocoön” will be getting a workout this year, as the Democrats coöperate to reëlect the President. |access-date=2021-08-07}} and MIT Technology Review under Jason Pontin. The diaeresis mark is sometimes used in English personal first and last names to indicate that two adjacent vowels should be pronounced separately, rather than as a diphthong. Examples include the given names Chloë and Zoë, which otherwise might be pronounced with a silent e. To discourage a similar mispronunciation, the mark is also used in the surname Brontë.{{cite news | URL=https://theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/sep/26/bronte-sisters-dots-names-corrected-westminster-abbey | work =The Guardian | first= Mark |last=Brown |date=26 September 2024 |title=Brontë sisters finally get their dots as names corrected at Westminster Abbey}} (See also {{slink|Umlaut (diacritic)|Use of the umlaut for special effect}}.)

{{anchor|In French}}

In French, the diaeresis is referred to as a tréma. Some diphthongs that were written with pairs of vowel letters were later reduced to monophthongs, which led to an extension of the value of this diacritic. It often now indicates that the second vowel letter is to be pronounced separately from the first, rather than merge with it into a single sound. For example, the French words {{lang|fr|maïs}} {{IPA|[ma.is]}} and {{lang|fr|naïve}} {{IPA|[na.iv]}} would be pronounced {{IPA|*[mɛ]}} and {{IPA|*[nɛv]}}, respectively, without the diaeresis mark, since the digraph ai is pronounced {{IPA|[ɛ]}}.{{efn|{{lang|fr|mais}} with no diaeresis is the conjunction "but" but {{lang|fr|maïs}} with one is the cereal "maize" (usually called corn in America) so the distinction is important.}} The English spelling of Noël meaning "Christmas" ({{langx|fr|Noël}} {{IPA|[nɔ.ɛl]}}) comes from this use. Ÿ occurs in French as a variant of ï in a few proper nouns, as in the name of the Parisian suburb of L'Haÿ-les-Roses {{IPA|[la.i le ʁoz]}} and in the surname of the house of Croÿ {{IPA|[kʁu.i]}}. In some names, a diaeresis is used to indicate two vowels historically in hiatus, although the second vowel has since fallen silent, as in Saint-Saëns {{IPA|[sɛ̃sɑ̃s]}} and de Staël {{IPA|[də stal]}}.

The diaeresis is also used in French when a silent e is added to the sequence gu, to show that it is to be pronounced {{IPA|[ɡy]}} rather than as a digraph for {{IPA|[ɡ]}}. For example, when the feminine {{nbhyph}}e is added to aigu {{IPA|[eɡy]}} "sharp", the pronunciation does not change in most accents:{{efn|In a some varieties, such as Belgian and Swiss French, "silent" {{nbhyph}}e causes a lengthening of the preceding vowel, so {{nbhyph}}guë/{{nbhyph}}güe is pronounced {{IPA|[ɡyː]}} in those accents.}} aiguë {{IPA|[eɡy]}} as opposed to the city name Aigues-Mortes {{IPA|[ɛɡ mɔʁt]}}. Similar is the feminine noun {{lang|fr|ciguë}} {{IPA|[siɡy]}} "hemlock"; compare {{lang|fr|figue}} {{IPA|[fiɡ]}} "fig". In the ongoing French spelling reform of 1990, this was moved to the u ({{lang|fr|aigüe}}, {{lang|fr|cigüe}}). (In {{lang|fr|canoë}} {{IPA|[kanɔ.e]}} the e is not silent, and so is not affected by the spelling reform.)

In Galician, diaeresis is employed to indicate hiatus in the first and second persons of the plural of the imperfect tense of verbs ended in -aer, -oer, -aír and -oír ({{lang|gl|saïamos}}, {{lang|gl|caïades}}). This stems from the fact that an unstressed -i- is left between vowels, but constituting its own syllable, which would end with a form identical in writing but different in pronunciation with those of the Present subjunctive ({{lang|gl|saiamos}}, {{lang|gl|caiades}}), as those have said i forming a diphthong with the following a.

In addition, identically to Spanish, the diaeresis is used to differentiate the syllables güe {{IPA|[ɡʷe]}} an güi {{IPA|[ɡʷi]}} from gue {{IPA|[ɡe]}} and gui {{IPA|[ɡi]}}.[https://www.lingua.gal/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=1647069&name=DLFE-10938.pdf Normas Ortográficas do Idioma Galego (p.25)]

In German, in addition to the pervasive use of umlaut diacritics with vowels, diaeresis above e occurs in a few proper names, such as Ferdinand Piëch and Bernhard Hoëcker.

In Modern Greek, {{lang|el|αϊ}} and {{lang|el|οϊ}} represent the diphthongs {{IPA|/ai̯/}} and {{IPA|/oi̯/}}, and {{lang|el|εϊ}} the disyllabic sequence {{IPA|/e.i/}}, whereas {{lang|el|αι}}, {{lang|el|οι}}, and {{lang|el|ει}} transcribe the simple vowels {{IPA|/e/}}, {{IPA|/i/}}, and {{IPA|/i/}}. The diacritic can be the only one on a vowel, as in {{lang|el|ακαδημαϊκός}} ({{lang|el-Latn|akadimaïkós}}, "academic"), or in combination with an acute accent, as in {{lang|el|πρωτεΐνη}} ({{lang|el-Latn|proteïni}}, "protein").

The Occitan use of diaeresis is very similar to that of Catalan: ai, ei, oi, au, eu, ou are diphthongs consisting of one syllable but aï, eï, oï, aü, eü, oü are groups consisting of two distinct syllables. Diaeresis may be used to indicate that ü is pronounced [w] in digraphs such as gü and qü.

In Portuguese, a diaeresis ({{langx|pt|trema}}) was used in (mainly Brazilian) Portuguese until the 1990 Orthographic Agreement. It was used in combinations {{lang|pt|güe/qüe}} and {{lang|pt|güi/qüi}}, in words like {{lang|pt|sangüíneo}} {{IPA|pt|sɐ̃ˈɡwinju|}} "sanguineous". After the implementation of the Orthographic Agreement, it was abolished altogether from all Portuguese words.

Spanish uses the diaeresis obligatorily in words such as {{lang|es|cigüeña}} and {{lang|es|pingüino}}; and optionally in some poetic (or, until 1950, academic) contexts in words like {{lang|es|vïuda}}, and {{lang|es|süave}}.{{cite web |url=https://dle.rae.es/di%C3%A9resis | title=Diéresis | Diccionario de la lengua española }}{{cite web |url=http://aplica.rae.es/orweb/cgi-bin/v.cgi?i=fnrrmgzBLbgwsUQh | title=Rae::ortografía }}

In Welsh, where the diaeresis appears, it is usually on the stressed vowel, and this is most often on the first of the two adjacent vowels; typical examples are {{lang|cy|copïo}} {{IPA|[kɔ.ˈpi.ɔ]}} (to copy) contrasted with {{lang|cy|mopio}} {{IPA|[ˈmɔ.pjɔ]}} (to mop). It is also used on the first of two vowels that would otherwise form a diphthong ({{lang|cy|crëir}} {{IPA|[ˈkreː.ɪr]}} ('created') rather than {{lang|cy|creir}} {{IPA|[ˈkrəi̯r]}} ('believed')) and on the first of three vowels to separate it from a following diphthong: {{lang|cy|crëwyd}} is pronounced {{IPA|[ˈkreː.ʊi̯d]}} rather than {{IPA|[ˈkrɛu̯.ɨd]}}.

• Two dots (disambiguation)
• Umlaut (disambiguation)

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