diaereses
Two dots above
Diaereses is the plural of diaeresis, the two dots placed over a vowel to indicate it should be pronounced separately from an adjacent vowel: naïve, Brontë, coöperate.
The mark distinguishes these from diphthongs, where two vowels blend into one sound.
American English increasingly omits the diaeresis, though *The New Yorker* famously retains it.
Break in activity
- syllableUnit of pronunciation
- vowelUnobstructed speech sound
- separateTo set apart
- articulationClear vocal expression
diphthong · phoneme · enunciation · stress · prosody · vocalization · utterance · adjacent
Unsophisticated and trusting
- coöperateWork jointly with others
- BrontëLiterary sisters' surname
- NoëlFrench Christmas term
- ZoëGreek-origin female name
spelling · hyphenation · punctuation · apostrophe · New Yorker · archaic · formal · editorial
Double-dot diacritical mark
- accentRegional speech pattern
- glyphVisual form of character
- markVisible impression or sign
- modifierWord altering another
vowel · separator · grapheme · distinction · transliteration · notation · diacritical · combining
hiatus
Break in activity
articulation · diphthong · phoneme · enunciation · stress · prosody · vocalization · utterance · adjacent · distinct
naïve
Unsophisticated and trusting
Zoë · spelling · hyphenation · punctuation · apostrophe · New Yorker · archaic · formal · editorial · house style
umlaut
Double-dot diacritical mark
modifier · vowel · separator · grapheme · distinction · transliteration · notation · diacritical · combining · superscript
glyph
Visual form of character
- typesettingArranging text for print
- fontCharacter style set
- typefaceLettering style design
kerning · ligature · character · rendering · display · composition · baseline · spacing · OpenType · text