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Comment by rtb | Hacker News Reader

I've never seen "coöperator" spelled with a diaeresis before. Apparently it's a New Yorker house style: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-t...

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This usage is correct but dropped by almost all publications, as it has fallebln out of usage (perhaps in the era of the typewriter which didn't have the necessary keys?). The New Yorker is one of the few major publications that still does it. The dieresis is used any time there are two consecutive vowels that are not voiced as a diphthong (the difference between cooperate and a coop where you keep chickens). "Cooperate" and "naive" seem to be the most common affected words (with the latter sometimes retaining the dieresis in publications that don't otherwise employ it).

I find language esoterica very interesting. The New Yorker uses diaeresis¹ with the prefix re as well, such as reëlect, reëstablish, and reëxamine.²

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-t...

We do change our style from time to time. My predecessor (and the former keeper of the comma shaker) told me that she used to pester the style editor, Hobie Weekes, who had been at the magazine since 1928, to get rid of the diaeresis. She found it fussy. She said that once, in the elevator, he told her he was on the verge of changing that style and would be sending out a memo soon. And then he died.

This was in 1978. No one has had the nerve to raise the subject since.

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¹ Or should that be diæresis?

² Speaking of style guides: Ooh, look! An Oxford comma!

Interesting! We have similar diaeresis in Spanish. But on the other hand, given English's spelling ambiguity and lack of overall consistency, I wonder what is the point of using this nowadays... But I guess, that article also wonders :D

> We have similar diaeresis in Spanish.

Besides ü?

You are right, only ü to break the gue and gui forms. The "diptongos" containing a weak-strong vowel combination may be broken into a "hiato" with an accent, such as: vía vs via.

As a German, I was thoroughly confused by that.

I am giggling right now imagining someone trying to pronounce that the German way. :)

That's how I read it first. I had to move backwards a few words later :-)

As a Dutchman, it looked natural to me. (coöperatie is the Dutch word for corporation and a fancy word for coöperation)

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