I was about to Have Opinions about the threats the US is making to Greenland, Denmark and Europe, then realised I have nothing useful to add, so I pressed Delete.

[ciarani@mastodon.green]

@psneeze This truth made me laugh actually aloud

[psneeze@mastodon.ie]

@CiaraNi

[tml@mementomori.social]

@CiaraNi @hanscees Sorry for being boring, but just felt like writing this: (And you probably know this already, but others might not.)

Personally I use the term "umlaut" only to describe the phenomenon in German and Swedish (and possibly other Germanic languages) where the spelling of a word changes when it is inflected in plural so that to an "a" or "o" the two dots are added. Like "Apfel" (apple) (singular) -> "Äpfel" (apples) (plural), or in Swedish "man" (man) -> "män" (men).

But not all instances of ä or ö in German or Swedish are umlauts. For instance "Käse" (cheese) in German or kärna (kernel) in Swedish are not plural, and are not some other inflection either of a corresponding word without the dots. There is no corresponding word "Kase" or "karna".

[ben_b_here@ohai.social]

@CiaraNi @tml I am not 100% familiar with Finnish grammar , but the unrivalled density of ümläute / umlauts in the inflection table is quite a sight: ääkköstä & ääkösiä in the partitive case. Can't get any better than thät!

[shivers@mastodon.ie]

@CiaraNi @psneeze Went down a fun path - cause fada means 'long' and it elongates the vowels... got curious and now know umlaut apparently word roots are 'about sound'

[jbiserkov@mas.to]

@CiaraNi
well, there's this: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%BCmlaut

[penpencilbrush@mstdn.social]

@CiaraNi Umlaut has a case of 'do as I say and not as I do'

[ciarani@mastodon.green]

@tml @hanscees This is interesting! I freely admit that I just use the word Umlaut casually for any old two dots I see over any old letter, the way I say 'astronomical' for things that are not even that big.

[booksandjohn@mastodonapp.uk]

@CiaraNi nor is there an apostrophe in the word apostrophe, nor . . . [you get the idea]

[tanghus@freeradical.zone]

@CiaraNi @hanscees
> insists on persisting with the use of diaeresis - naïve, coöperation, etc

I think it's kinda sexy. Maybe because it makes me think of Anaïs Nin.

[ciarani@mastodon.green]

@ben_b_here @tml I'm trying and failing to pronounce these, but having fun trying

[log@mastodon.sdf.org]

@CiaraNi Could manage one on a diëresis.

[czottmann@norden.social]

@CiaraNi ümläütß

There you go

[ciarani@mastodon.green]

@shivers @psneeze I always liked the fact that fada just means 'long', the plain practicality of it. I didn't know 'umlaut' has a similar trait. 'About sound'. That was a pleasing new-to-me thing to learn. GRMA

[tanghus@freeradical.zone]

@wannabemystiker @CiaraNi I think it depends on what side of the "stødgrænse" (dunno how to translate that) you are.
https://dialekt.ku.dk/maanedens_emne/stoedgraensen/

[ciarani@mastodon.green]

@jbiserkov It says it's a "hyperforeign misspelling', but I'd vote for it.

[ciarani@mastodon.green]

@penpencilbrush yes indeed, and that's the kind of thing up with which I will not put

[ciarani@mastodon.green]

@czottmann Haha, danke very much, that's a pleasing collection of letters

[psneeze@mastodon.ie]

@shivers @CiaraNi I never knew that.

[ciarani@mastodon.green]

@wannabemystiker I know, right? When Mette Frederiksen is finished with Trump, we'll ask her to get on to fixing this next.