Orthography (#362, 'accent')

[john_amend_all]

Title: Orthography
Author: john_amend_all
Characters: Jamie, Zoë
Rating: All ages
Prompt: #362, 'accent'
Word count: 100
Disclaimer: 'Doctor Who' characters belong to the BBC.
Summary: The importance of diacritical marks.

Jamie watched Zoë as she finished carving her name into the rock, a little way from his. Having completed the 'E', she carefully drilled two holes into the rock above it, twisting the tip of the knife this way and that.

"What d'ye want to put those dots there for?" he asked.

"They're not not dots, Jamie, they're a diæresis. It's so that people can tell my name's pronounced Zo-e, and not Zo."

"Oh, aye? Most of the folks we met seemed tae ken that anyway, even without a— what's it called again?"

"Diæresis."

Jamie shook his head. "Sounds painful."

Comments

[evilawyer]

Hah! Jaime's so very right about that. Lovely drabble.

[john_amend_all]

He's quite right; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word has or had this additional meaning:

3. Surg. Separation of parts normally united, as by a wound or burn, lancing, etc. 1706

[primsong]

Come to think of it, he's right - it *does* sound painful. ;-D

[john_amend_all]

As I mentioned in the comment above, he's quite right.