| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| DIERESIS, DIAERESIS |
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| A dieresis (the plural is diereses; diaeresis/diaereses are the usual British variants) is the diacritical mark (¨) placed over the second of two consecutive vowel letters to indicate that it is to be given full syllabic force; thus each of the two contiguous vowels in naïve is to have a syllable to itself: nei-EEV. Today American editors frequently specify a hyphen rather than a dieresis in some words (co-opt instead of coöpt) that might otherwise confuse; in others, they often drop the dieresis and let context distinguish (naivete or naïvete; reënlist, re-enlist, or reenlist). See ACCENT (2); DIGRAPHS; LIGATURES; SPELLING (1). | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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