[Spellyans] dictionnaire de l'Academie francaise

[David Trethewey]

To clarify, I was aware that the diaeresis had been used by Nance, but 
was saying that ÿ and ë were unfamiliar.

As far as having a negative reaction, its an aesthetic reaction to the 
change in the overall "look" of the language, I guess it would probably 
go away with more exposure to it.

David

Michael Everson wrote:
> On 2 Feb 2011, at 08:37, David Trethewey wrote:
>
>   
>> For what its worth, my initial reaction to ÿ and ë was negative, I think that having a diacritic that looks very unfamiliar may put people off the language.
>>     
>
> Nance used ü in his dictionaries and grammars. The diacritic is not "very unfamiliar"; it has been visible in the Revival for a very long time indeed. 
>
>   
>> My reaction to ô or â or ù to indicate things like irregular vowel length was more positive, perhaps given that these are commonly found in languages such as French and Welsh.
>>     
>
> French (and English) both use the diaeresis in words like naïve, and Welsh uses the diaeresis as well (copïo, storïau). 
>
> And why exactly was your reaction "negative"? We've rehearsed the practical and technical reasons for not using ê/ŷ (no point in specifying a diacritic that is unavailable in many fonts). 
>
> It's two little dots. The letter "i" has one dot just like them. The two little dots indicate that these two letters are part of a large class of words with a dialect alternation. 
>
> Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/
>
>
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-- 
David Trethewey
Institute of Astronomy

http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~dlrt2

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