In the November 23rd issue of the New Yorker "facade" is spelled "façade" with a cedilla in The Skyline article. Why would they do that? Do they think we're going to pronounce "facade" as "fakade"? I don't think so. In fact, I'll bet 99% of the people who read the New Yorker would pronounce "facade" correctly without the help of a cedilla.
Could it be pure and unadulterated pretentiousness. I think so.
If they're going to spell "façade" with a cedilla, why don't they also spell "façiliate" "façetious" "façets" with a cedilla. For that matter why don't they spell çedilla with a cedilla?
The problem with spelling "facade" as "façade" is that it takes the reader's attention away from the meaning of the sentence and focuses it on the word. It has the same effect as a misspelled word.
… why don't they also spell "façiliate" "façetious" "façets" with a cedilla. For that matter why don't they spell çedilla with a cedilla?
I agree that the cedilla in facade is not needed in English, and that in this context it communicates more about the writer than about the pronunciation of the word. Having said that, I must comment that MS Word auto-corrects my typing of facade to façade and I would be unlikely even to notice the change. (N.B. MS Word in the person of the infernal Clippy has also complained about my typing of "doing good" meaning to do good deeds, pleading that I change it to "doing well". I coldly refused.)
I feel the same way about façade as about the use of the dieresis in cooperate (coöperate). We don't feel the need to use any diacritic to indicate that the sh in dishearten is not pronounced /ʃ/ as a digraph, but /s/ followed by /h/. Perhaps, if there were two words with the same spelling, but with differing pronunciation, the diacritic would be more helpful and, thus, more enduring
(c.f. recreation vs. re-creation).
In French, the cedilla is used only before the "hard" vowels (i.e. a, o, u) to distinguish the pronunciation as /s/, as opposed to the natural pronunciation as /k/. Before "soft" vowels, the c is always pronounced as /s/. (Consider how in English we use a fleeting k as in to politic, politicking, politicked; to picnic, picnicking, picnicked)
So your other examples are impossible. The cedilla would never be written in these orthographic contexts.
To illustrate, there are lots of words in French for which the presence and absence of the cedilla alternate based on the vowel that follows in a grammatical ending (e.g. the French verb recevoir – to receive:
(Present – Future – Imperfect)
je reçois recevrai recevais
tu reçois recevras recevais
il reçoit recevra recevait
nous recevons recevrons recevions
vous recevez recevrez receviez
ils reçoivent recevront recevaient
Present participle
recevant
Passé composé
Auxiliary verb avoir
Past participle reçu
(Subjunctive – Conditional – Passé simple – Imperfect subjunctive)
je reçoive recevrais reçus reçusse
tu reçoives recevrais reçus reçusses
il reçoive recevrait reçut reçût
nous recevions recevrions reçûmes reçussions
vous receviez recevriez reçûtes reçussiez
ils reçoivent recevraient reçurent reçussent
Imperative
(tu) reçois
(nous) recevons
(vous) recevez
It should be noted that the New Yorker is well-known for certain style preferences, including a dieresis in "coöperate."
Garry, many times people have revealed to me (or in writing I have read) that "facade" was one of those words they mispronounced when they were young readers who had never heard the word before. I did it myself!
Grant Barrett said:
It should be noted that the New Yorker is well-known for certain style preferences, including a dieresis in "coöperate."
Just last week, Alex Trebek misread a clue on "Jeopardy!" referring to "a coop for sheep or doves". His first attempt pronounced the word as "co-op".
Grant Barrett said:
It should be noted that the New Yorker is well-known for certain style preferences, including a dieresis in "coöperate."
Grant, does the New Yorker also specify dieresis in analogous situations? Or is "coöperate" unique to them? Or is it part of a select group? (e.g. coëd; coëxist; coöpt; coördinated; coïncidence; coïnsured; coägulate; coälition)
Personally, I would leave them all out. Does that make me reäctionary or antiïntellectual?
The Harvard Coop, while it is a co-op, is properly pronounced as rhyming with Hoop. I suspect it is an inside joke that serves the essential purpose of separating insiders from outsiders. I am an outsider.