Re: Y diaeresis

From: Alain LaBont/e'/ (alb@sct.gouv.qc.ca)
Date: Sun Dec 01 1996 - 13:57:23 EST


At 02:44 01/12/96 -0500, Jonathan Rosenne wrote:
>Keld J|rn Simonsen wrote:
>>Well, my information is that it is used in French, a number
>>of French names are using the diaeresis to tell that this
>>letter is to be pronounced by itself, and not to be combined
>>with the preceding vowel. The upper-case form is then used whenever
>>the name is all capitalized, as for example on road-signs.

[Jonathan] :
>[...]
>
>Another difference is that the diaeresis is loosely bound to the vowel - it is
>normally a question of judgement whether it is necessary or not, and many
people
>do not consider it as belonging to the spelling of the word.

In French all accents, cedillas and diaeresises are mandatory in correct
spelling. There is no option. This is of course different in some other
languages for which diacritics are not as important for either pronunciation
or disambiguation.

Alain LaBonti
Quibec



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