Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!swi.psy.uva.nl!manfred
From: manfred@swi.psy.uva.nl (Manfred Aben)
Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml
Subject: Umlaut vs. Diaresis (?)
Message-ID: <4410@swi.swi.psy.uva.nl>
Date: 2 Oct 90 09:20:53 GMT
Reply-To: manfred@swi.psy.uva.nl ()
Organization: SWI, UvA, Amsterdam
Lines: 28

Hi there!

On behalf of a friend who does not have access to the NewsNet, I would like
to know if any of you have some ideas about the following (possibly also other
newsgroups):

Does SGML provide a way of specifying an 'Umlaut', as is used in German, in
contrast wit a 'diaresis', used in many languages, such as the Dutch language.
In printed text, i.e. typographically, these two are not distinguishable
anymore. Note that an umlaut historically was printed as two vertical stripes
(") on top of a vowel, whereas a diaresis should e printed as two dots (..) on
top of a vowel.
These two things are not the same, the umlaut changes the sound of the vowel,
whereas the diaresis is used to mark a seperation in a word.

All replies are greatly appreciated (references, ideas?)
You can mail me directly (manfred@swi.psy.uva.nl) or reply in this group.

Znx in advance!

=;-)

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Manfred Aben
Dept. of Social Sciences Informatics
University of Amsterdam
Herengracht 196  1016 BS  AMSTERDAM (The Netherlands)
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