Diaeresis
diacritic (U+0308) of two dots written horizontalement above a base letter, used to denote the separation of two consecutive vowels, or to replace the 2nd letter of a digraph modifying the pronunciation of the base letter
(Redirected from Hiatus)
The diaeresis (plural: diaereses) is also spelled diæresis or dieresis. It is a diacritical mark: two dots ( ¨ ) put over a letter, usually a vowel.
It is most often used in this way:
- With a diacritic, one vowel is sounded separately from its neighbour. So, in the word zöology, it is pronounced as a long 'o' followed by a short 'o'.[1] Without the diaeresis, it might be pronounced like the word 'zoo'. It is sometimes described as "two vowel sounds occurring in adjacent syllables". It is often used in names where the last vowel is sounded, as in Chloë or Brontë.
- Umlauts: A diacritic above a vowel can mark a sound shift, forming a new letter (Ä, Ö, Ü).
Notes
change- ↑ Because its origin in Ancient Greek was ζῷον, written with the long 'o' first.