Diereses is a noun used in linguistics to refer to two dots above a vowel to indicate that it is pronounced separately from the preceding vowel. The correct spelling of this word is /daɪˈɛrɪsiːz/, with the primary stress on the second syllable. It is important to note that the plural of this word is spelled "diereses" (with an "es" ending), not "dieresis" (without the "es" ending), despite the singular form being spelled with only one "e."
Diereses, also spelled as diaeresis, is a linguistic term that refers to a diacritical mark consisting of two dots placed above a letter. This mark, which is derived from Greek, is used in certain languages to indicate that a vowel is pronounced separately and not as part of a diphthong or a combination with another vowel. The purpose of a dieresis is to clarify the pronunciation and syllabic division of words.
In English, the most common use of the dieresis is over the letter "u" in words such as "naive" and "cooperate." The dieresis denotes that the "u" should be pronounced as a separate vowel rather than forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel. Likewise, in Spanish, the dieresis is used over the letter "u" in words like "pingüino" to indicate that it is pronounced as an individual vowel.
Outside of these two languages, the dieresis may have varying applications. For instance, in German, it can appear over the letter "e" to indicate that it is pronounced as a separate syllable in certain situations. Additionally, the dieresis can be placed over other vowels in some languages, such as Estonian, Hungarian, and Finnish, to show that they are pronounced individually rather than forming a diphthong or vowel harmony pattern.
Overall, the dieresis is a diacritic that aids in the accurate pronunciation and syllabication of words in different languages.
* The statistics data for these misspellings percentages are collected from over 15,411,110 spell check sessions on www.spellchecker.net from Jan 2010 - Jun 2012.
The word "dieresis" originated from the Greek word "diêresis", which means "division" or "separation". It comes from the verb "diêirein", which means "to divide" or "to separate". In the English language, "dieresis" refers to the mark (¨) placed over a letter to indicate that it should be pronounced as a separate vowel sound rather than as part of a diphthong or a glide.