The two dots over a vowel is called the umlaut.. what's the one circle over a vowel called.. anyone know?? | Notes and Queries (2024)

The two dots over a vowel is called the umlaut.. what's the one circle over a vowel called.. anyone know??

Jay, Los Angeles, USA

• It's called a Superdot - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic for more information on diacritics.

  Hazel Ruxton, Houston, UK

• I've just looked at that page, and so should you have, Hazel. The superdot is, not unnaturally, a dot. The questioner asked about the "one circle over a vowel".It's called a ring (bet that surprised you) and it isn't actually considered a diacritic, but part of the letter itself, which is considered different from the letter it appears over, usually an A or U (Šå Ů ů).It's used in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and the Belgian Romance language called Walloon. They also use it in Czech, but there it's called a kroužek.Additionally, Å is the correct abbreviation for the unit of length called the Ångström (or Ångstrøm).

  John Bennett, Glasgow Scotland

  See Also

  How to Correctly Pronounce the Umlaute ä, ö, ü

• It is called a krou(z with a little v-sign above it)ek. You can also called it a ring. In Danish, Swedish and Norwegian the vowel with this sign over it it treated as a separate letter rather than as an accented one. The two dots, however, might be a diaeresis, as in naïve, or a trema, as in the French ambiguë, rather than an umlaut. A diaeresis makes you pronounce the vowel separately (so you don’t pronounce naïve as nave), a trema forces the pronunciation of the previous vowel (so you pronounce the u in ambiguë and don’t say ‘ambig’), an umlaut changes the sound of the vowel ( the German a sounds a bit like the English a in bat, but ä sounds like the English e in bed).

  Michael Bulley, Chalon, S France

• Hazel Ruxton, is right in her answer but, in Swedish at least, these letters are distinct characters in their own right, which appear at the end of the alphabet, so it wouldn't be quite right to describe these dots (or the ring) as an accent. The A with two dots (Ä) is pronounced like the english word "air", whereas the A with the ring (Å) is pronounced "oar", there is also an O with two dots (Ő) which is pronounced "eugh" - or something rather similar, there isn't really an equivalent sound in English. Out of interest your readers might like to know that the Ő character appears as Ø in Norwegian but this is still the same letter.

  Peter Clark, Cambridge, England

• It's not a superdot. That hasn't got a hole in it. It's called a krouzek. To spell that word correctly you need a little v sign above the z, but the technology in the answer box doesn't allow for it.

  Michael Bulley, Chalon-sur-Saone France