2009/3/11 David Morton mortonda@dgrmm.net
Édouard Gilbert wrote:
And I discovered some years ago that some english-speaking people don’t even know there are other layouts than US.
As is true when it comes to data formats, and language, too. As one of those US centric people, I still have yet to find someone to tell me how 'ü' sounds different from 'u'and all that. I have learned 'ñ' from Spanish class. :) For that matter, is there an audible distinction between Édouard and Edouard? (Or if I were to naively translate to a more english name, Edward) Yes, I speak out of ignorance. At least I know how to type the right letters. :)
Well as another french speaker, I can respond : In french, the ¨ is a mark that a vowels combo is not a diphtong ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthong), and sometime it's just a disambiguation sign (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis) .
In German, it's different, as "ü" is pronounced as a french "u" :-)
Too bad that computer ASCII was invented by english speakers, English is one of the rare european language without diacritics.
As you see, I have the same first name as you, spelling the same, but I can assure you that there is a real and audible difference (and never speak of my last name, as I have always had to spell it when travelling)
Thanks for listening …