diaeresis

• dieresis (US); diæresis (archaic)

From Ancient Greek διαίρεσις (diaíresis, “division, split”), from διά (diá, “apart”) + αἱρέω (hairéō, “I take”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /daɪˈɛɹɪsɪs/, /daɪˈɪəɹɪsɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /daɪˈɛɹəsɪs/

diaeresis (plural diaereses)

1. (orthography) A diacritic ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel letter (especially the second of two consecutive ones) indicating that it is sounded separately, usually forming a distinct syllable, as in the English words naïve, Noël and Brontë, the French haïr and the Dutch ruïne.
2. (linguistics, prosody) Distraction; the separation of a vowel, often a diphthong, into two distinct syllables.
3. (prosody) A natural break in rhythm when a word ends at the end of a metrical foot, in a line of verse.
4. (linguistics, prosody) Hiatus; the occurrence of separate vowel sounds in adjacent syllables without an intervening consonant.

• The umlaut is an often visually identical diacritic which alters the sound of a single vowel (as in German schön). Properly speaking, the terms diaeresis and umlaut are not interchangeable, though speakers frequently use the term umlaut to refer to a diaeresis.

• tréma, trema

• umlaut

From the Ancient Greek δῐαίρεσῐς (diaíresis).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /diˈae̯.re.sis/, [diˈae̯.rɛ.sɪs]

diaeresis f (genitive diaeresis or diaereseōs or diaeresios); third declension

1. (grammar) diaeresis (division of a diphthong into two vowels in consecutive syllables)
   • AD 98–138, Velius Longus (aut.), T.H.G. Keil (ed.), Liber de orthographia in Grammatici Latini VII (1880), p. 57, ll. 21–28:

     sed et quidam in hac quoque scriptione voluerunt esse differentiam, ut pluralis quidem numeri nominativus casus per a et e scriberetur, genetivus vero singularis per a et i, hoc quoque argumentantes, quod diaeresis, sive dialysis illa dicetur, a nominativo plurali non fit, sed ex singulari obliquo, cum dicitur  ‘ a u l a i   i n   m e d i o ’  et //  d i v e s   e q u u m ,   d i v e s   p i c t a i   v e s t i s   e t   a u r i ,  // item rei nostrai, faciendai, magnai.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

   • circa AD 384, Ser. Honoratus (aut.), G. Thilo & H. Hagen (eds.), In Vergilii Aeneidos commentarii in Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii II (1884), bk vii, l. 464 (p. 160, ll. 1–9):

     Fvrit intvs aqvai fvmidvs id est aquae amnis: nec inmerito; nam potest esse et alterius rei amnis, “ut fluvios videt ille cruoris”. Hanc autem diaeresin Tucca et Varius fecerunt: nam Vergilius sic reliquerat “furit intus aquae amnis” et “exuberat amnis”: quod satis asperum fuit. Notandum quod in toto Vergilio non reperiuntur nisi quattuor diaereses, hoc loco, et in tertio ⟨354⟩, ut “aulai medio libabant pocula Bacchi”, et in VI. ⟨747⟩ ut “aurai simplicis ignem”, et in IX. ⟨26⟩ “dives pictai vestis et auri”.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

2. (rhetoric) distribution
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Julius Valerius Alexander Polemius to this entry?)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Tyrannius Rufinus to this entry?)

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

• (rhetoric: distribution): distribūtiō (pure Latin)

• (grammar: diaeresis): synaeresis

• dĭaerĕsis in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• dĭærĕsis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette, page 517/3
• “diaeresis” on page 535/3 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)