The special tool we use here at The New Yorker for punching out the two dots that we then center carefully over the second vowel in such words as “naïve” and “Laocoön” will be getting a workout this ...

I wouldn’t wish an episode of diaeresis on anyone, but you asked for it. A diaeresis (also spelled “dieresis”) is a diacritical mark in the form of two dots, like an umlaut, placed over a vowel to ...

This article is from the archive of our partner . She continues, "Most of the English-speaking world finds the diaeresis inessential." The New Yorker, as we mentioned previously, does not, even though ...