Œ: Difference between revisions
| Line 33: | Line 33: | ||
The small capital variant {{IPA|[ɶ]}} represents the [[open front rounded vowel]]. |
The small capital variant {{IPA|[ɶ]}} represents the [[open front rounded vowel]]. |
||
The capital variant for Πwas postscript OE, name Latin capital ligature Oe. |
|||
== In computing == |
== In computing == |
||
Revision as of 03:09, 9 November 2008
- This article is about the typographic ligature, for other uses, see Oe
Œ œ
Œ (minuscule: œ) is a Latin alphabet grapheme, a ligature of o and e. In medieval and early modern Latin, it was used to represent the Greek diphthong οι, a usage which continues in English and French. In French, it is also used in some non-Latin words.
It is used in the modern orthography for Old West Norse and is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent the open-mid front rounded vowel. In English runology, œ is used to transliterate the Runic letter odal ᛟ 
, and so œ is sometimes called œthel or ethel (from ēðel 'estate, ancestral home').[1]
Overview
In Latin, the combination denotes a diphthong, IPA: [oi̯], that had a value similar to English OI. It was used in borrowings from Greek words having the diphthong OI (ΟΙ, οι). Both classical and modern practice is to write the letters separately, but the ligature was used in medieval and early modern writings, in part because œ was reduced to a simple vowel ([e]) in late Latin.
Πin different languages
English
Borrowings into English from Latin words written with œ (which in turn are often from Greek words written οι) now largely use the letter e, especially in American English. For example, fœderal has become federal in English, while diarrhœa in American English can be spelled diarrhea only. In those words that have not changed to e, the digraph oe is often used; indeed, most recent dictionaries list only the form without a ligature.
The œ, oe, or e is generally pronounced /iː/, or /ɛ/ in a few cases.
Other Germanic languages
Œ is used in the modern scholarly orthography of Old West Norse, representing the long vowel /øː/, contrasting with ø, which represents the short vowel /ø/.
Œ is not used in German; borrowings using oe are rendered ö, e.g. Fötus.
In Romance languages
In French, œ (called e dans l'o, meaning "e in o" but also a pun as it sounds like œufs dans l'eau, meaning "eggs in water") is a true linguistic ligature, not just a typographic one (like the fi or fl ligatures), reflecting etymology. It is most prominent in the words cœur ("heart"), sœur ("sister"), œuf ("egg") and œil ("eye"), in which it represents the sound /œ/ or /ø/. French also uses œ in direct borrowings from Latin and Greek. So, "cœliac" in French is cœliaque. In such cases, the œ is pronounced /e/. In some words, e.g. phénix, the œ is changed to a more French é.
When oe occurs in French without the ligature, it is pronounced /wa/, just like words spelt with oi. The most common words of this type are poêle ("stove", "frying pan") and moelleux ("soft"). If the oe is not to be pronounced thus, then a diaeresis, acute or grave accent needs to be added in order to indicate that the vowels should be pronounced separately. For example, Noël, poésie, poète. The exception to this rule is the prefix co-, which is always pronounced /ko/ in hiatus with the following vowel, e.g. coentreprise ("joint venture") or coefficient ("ratio", "coefficient") and does not require any accent on the e to make this so.
International Phonetic Alphabet
The symbol [œ] is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet for the open-mid front rounded vowel. This sound resembles the "eu" in the French neuf or the "ö" in the German öffnen. These contrast with French feu and German schön, which have the vowel ø.
The small capital variant [ɶ] represents the open front rounded vowel.
The capital variant for Πwas postscript OE, name Latin capital ligature Oe.
In computing
For computers, when using the Unicode character set, the codes for Œ and œ are respectively U+xxxx0152 and U+xxxx0153 in hexadecimal. In ISO-8859-15, Œ is 0xBC and œ 0xBD in hexadecimal. In HTML, the HTML character entity references Œ and œ can also be used. In Windows-1252, at positions 0x8C and 0x9C. In Mac-Roman, they are at positions 0xCE and 0xCF. The LaTeX commands are \oe and \OE .
Œ and œ were removed from ISO-8859-1 (as well as derived standards, such as IBM code page 850 and Windows-1252), a character map obsoleted by Unicode but still widespread in internet protocols and applications that do not support full Unicode. Œ is the only character in modern French that is not included in ISO-8859-1, and this has led to it becoming replaced by 'oe' in many computer-assisted publications (including printed magazines and newspapers). Another reason is that œ is also absent from most French keyboards, and as a result few people know how to input it.
There are two explanations as to the removal of Œ and œ from ISO-8859-1: one is that the ISO French delegate admitted that it was only a typographical ligature. The other is that the French delegate missed the committee session and the other delegates decided to remove it[1].
The above-mentioned small capital ɶ of the International Phonetic Alphabet is encoded at U+0276.
Inputting Œ and œ
The Windows ANSI codes for Œ and œ are Alt-0140 and Alt-0156, respectively. Enter them by holding down the Alt key and typing the numbers on the numerical keypad (not the number row above the letter keys).
In Microsoft Word, "œ" is entered using <Ctrl>& followed by o in quick succession. Word processors such as MS Word automatically correct French words like soeur to sœur, but if another program is used (e.g. an instant messenger, or a browser) the word will be sent uncorrected. A cursory examination shows that incorrect oe spellings predominate on the Internet, whereas in standard French printed matter it is all but unheard-of.
In Mac OS X (Macintosh computers), using a CA-English or US-English keyboard, the character œ may be generated by the following keyboard shortcut: hold down the Option key while pressing the letter q (also expressed as Option-q).
On a DE-German keyboard, use Option-ö to generate the œ. Holding down the shift key in addition to either combination will generate the capital Œ. If preferred, the Macintosh Character Palette can also be used to enter special characters[2].
References
- ^ John R. Clark Hall, 1962, A concise Anglo-Saxon dictionary, Cambridge University Press, p. 108, s.v. ēðel 'name of the rune for œ'.
See also
External links
- Paleography: Special Characters in English Manuscripts, course notes