Umlauts in English, which are obviously totally out of style, exist to tell readers not to pronounce the vowels together as one sound. Normally, like in the word "toe," you pronounce both vowels as one sound ("oh"). In words like Zoë, coöperate, and naïve, the umlauts indicate that the second vowel is pronounced distinctly from the first. You'll see it occasionally on the name and on naïve, but pretty much never anywhere else anymore (unless you read the New Yorker, where I've seen it on "coöperate" relatively recently). I don't think it's super important, but I prefer the name with them. I really do want to pronounce the name to rhyme with toe otherwise.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dandelionwishes posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
babynames
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 10:37 pm (UTC)In words like Zoë, coöperate, and naïve, the umlauts indicate that the second vowel is pronounced distinctly from the first. You'll see it occasionally on the name and on naïve, but pretty much never anywhere else anymore (unless you read the New Yorker, where I've seen it on "coöperate" relatively recently).
I don't think it's super important, but I prefer the name with them. I really do want to pronounce the name to rhyme with toe otherwise.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-21 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 05:09 am (UTC)