Plural of dieresis; the points or symbols used in writing to indicate that two vowels should be pronounced separately rather than as a diphthong.
From Greek 'dieresis' meaning 'separation,' from 'diairesis' (division). The term describes the typographical mark (¨) placed over a vowel to show it's pronounced separately from the preceding vowel.
The diaeresis is dying out in English (notice how 'naïve' now often drops the dots), but it's still essential in languages like French and German, showing how written conventions change faster than people realize.
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