A Vowel Perforation Called the Diaeresis

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sydney. I’m calling from Boston.

From Boston. Welcome to the show, Sydney. What can we do for you?

So, I don’t remember what I was reading, but I was reading the word naive, and it, like, stuck in my craw somehow because of the two little dots on top of the I.

And I could not get over, it’s not a letter.

Like, I don’t think I’ve ever seen those two little I’s before, or the two little dots on top of an I before.

And so I guess my question is just like, why?

The word naive, N-A-I-V-E, and there are two dots over the I?

Yeah, exactly.

Where were you reading this, Sydney?

I do have a little bit of the habit of reading The New Yorker, and I know that I’ve seen it.

Like, they do it a lot.

Right.

And I don’t know if it’s connected because I see it there often on the O, which is also annoying because, to my knowledge, I don’t think, like, O with the two little dots is an English letter.

So very confused.

So you’re annoyed by those two little dots when you see them occasionally over vowels.

I think that’s an understatement to say that I’m annoyed.

They’re sometimes called diaresis.

That’s D-I-A-E-R-E-S-I-S, diaresis.

I was thinking of the ancient Greek word it comes from, which means division.

This diacritical mark that you see occasionally goes all the way back to ancient Greek.

And the reason that they used it in ancient Greek is that originally Greek was written without spaces between words, if you can imagine that.

And so those little dots were helpful at the beginning of the word if you had two or more vowels crashing up against each other.

It would just get confusing otherwise.

In English, it’s sometimes called a trema, T-R-E-M-A, which comes from a Greek word meaning perforation, which I really like.

You know, just a little perforation on the page.

You see it in French occasionally in words like naive and naivete, which is why we see that sometimes in English.

You also see it in words like Noel, which was adopted into English and sometimes on Christmas cards.

You know, it looks kind of pretty to see that little perforation.

And occasionally you’ll see it in English names like Zoe or the name of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily, Anne.

It’s really died out in English, except, as you noted, in The New Yorker, which stubbornly holds on to that diacritical mark for words like cooperate or reelect.

Because when they were developing the style of The New Yorker early in the 20th century, they felt that that was an elegant solution to the problem of those vowels bumping up against each other.

And, Sydney, I have to recommend at this point a wonderful book by Mary Norris about her years working in the copy department at The New Yorker.

She wrote a book called Between You and Me, Confessions of a Comic Queen.

And in that book, she acknowledges that the use of the diaresis is the number one complaint from readers.

So you have lots of company.

But what’s also really interesting about that is that she relates a story from her predecessor in the copy department who agreed with you that the diarysis really isn’t necessary, that it is kind of fussy.

And Mary Norris’s predecessor told her that she used to pester the style editor then, who had been there since 1928.

And one day in the elevator, he mentions to Mary’s predecessor, you know, I think it’s time to make a change.

We need to get rid of this.

And I’m going to send out a memo telling people not to use it anymore.

And then he died.

And Mary says, this was in 1978.

No one has had the nerve to raise the subject since.

That is incredible.

And I feel like it affirms for me that there’s something a little bit like fancy pants about it, which is both annoying, but I can appreciate.

But then I also feel like English asks so much of us in terms of through and though.

And none of our spelling makes any sense.

And so I feel like if we’re only going to use this on a couple of words, why not just drop it and expect people to learn that naive is pronounced that way?

I don’t know.

Don’t you see that the diarysis is providing a clue to pronunciation, though?

It’s one of the few places that you can be helpful.

So you don’t pronounce a word like cooperative, like cooperative.

You don’t say bronte like brunt.

I agree with Sydney.

I mean, these are things you can just learn and move on.

Okay.

But yeah, I’d love to hear more about what you think about that, Sydney, now that you’ve heard all that history.

I am fascinated by the connection to ancient Greek.

I am a devotee of Saffo.

So it’s very fun to hear that there’s that connection.

I just remembered what I was reading when I found it.

And I don’t know if it’s helpful to tell you now, but it was a really great book.

And I definitely recommend it.

It was The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon.

Fantasy, it’s got dragons in it.

Highly recommend.

Oh, I’m for it.

All for it.

I’ll check it out.

Thank you for the recommendation, Sydney.

And thank you so much for your call.

We really appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

This was really fun.

Take care of yourself.

Thanks.

Yep, you too.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

So the diarysis says pronounce this vowel, and the umlaut says pronounce this vowel differently.

Right.

An umlaut looks just the same, but it’s not.

An umlaut is German.

Yeah, an umlaut appears in German and will change the sound of a vowel like sometimes when you’re switching from singular to plural.

Oh, perfect.

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