I find etymology fascinating and having taken a formal German class as well as having lived in the Fatherland, the...

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I find etymology fascinating and having taken a formal German class as well as having lived in the Fatherland, the umlaut, or diaeresis, were a pain in my side. I still can't pronounce them correctly.
http://theweek.com/article/index/268585/11-facts-yuuml-should-know-about-the-umlau

Comments

Jason ON said…
I don't even know how to make an umlaut with an (American) English keyboard. Not without going to "Special Characters."
October 5, 2014 at 12:40 PM
Amelie Harms said…
"Beginning with Blue Öyster Cult in the early '70s, heavy metal bands started using the umlaut to signal a badass hard rock attitude. To Americans the umlaut had a harsh, Teutonic look to it and Mötley Crüe, Motörhead, Queensrÿche, and dozens of other bands (listed on the Metal Umlaut Wikipedia page) tried to impart a little gothic scariness through randomly scattered pairs of dots. The dots didn't have quite the same effect in umlaut-using countries, where the umlaut signifies vowel qualities of softness, highness, lightness, and roundedness."

It looks pretty ridiculous, actually. Or in swedish: Det ser rätt löjligt ut, faktiskt.
October 5, 2014 at 2:10 PM
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