What exactly does the um laut (i dont even know how to spell it) do to my name?

Question

My name is Cöelis (CHAY-lees) & its latin for heaven. I understand that um laut (still dont know how to spell it) over the o makes my name sound like CHAY, but how, i mean, does anyone know the specifics? I just thought it would be cool to know, so that the next time someone asked "Why'd you put 2 dots over the O?", i could tell them exactly why instead of just "I don't know, thats just the way it is, it's latin... "
... thats all, Thanx! =D

Answer 1

Actually, as far as I know, Latin doesn't use umlauts. By the way, the English word for that mark is dieresis. My guess is that your parents thought it looked cool, and it does.

Answer 2

I suspect that the two dots on the "ö" in your name (lovely name, by the way) are neither umlaut nor diaeresis, since they neither appear to turn the "o" into the "i" sound in "girl" (as an umlaut would do) nor turn the diphthong "ay" into two monopthongs (as a diaeresis would do, see the difference in pronunciation between "nave/knave" and "naïve"). The two dots are probably just an ornament like the so-called "Heavy Metal umlauts" in band names such as mötörhead or so...

Latin did not have umlaut punctuation, but it is all but clear whether it had umlauts as in "caesar" or "caelum/coelum". The last two words are used for "heaven" in Latin, so that the form that your name is in "coelis" would be dative or ablative plural, meaning "from/by/to the heavens".

Just a short note on the "German-ness" of the umlaut: While the term itself is German, German is far from the only language that uses two dots (or two parallel lines) over a vowel to signify umlaut-like sounds, developed out of a little "e" over the respective vowel. Many alphabets have taken over this tradition from the German alphabet. Turkish, Finnish, Swedsish and Hungarian are just some of them.

Answer 3

I think your umlaut is misleading. Normally it would indicate that your name is three syllables rather than two, the o and the e being separately pronounced (cf. Noël -- no+el). But you say that it is two syllables. The original Latin would be coelis, pronounced originally as coil-ees, but in ecclesiastical Latin (as used in the Roman Catholic Church) as chay-lees. It is a word one encounters in the Nicene Creed: "..descendit de Coelis" ("came down from Heaven").
If I were looking at your name for the first time without your explanation, I would pronounce it (because of the umlaut) as
Cuh-elis. That's what the umlaut does to your name. It's obviously just there as a decoration.

Answer 4

I'm not sure about your case, but in the German language, an umlaut over a vowel makes it sound different. Like in the word "spater" (means later), it is written with an umlaut over the letter a.

So instead of sounding like sp-at-ter, is is pronounced Sp-ae-ter.

In german anyways putting an umlaut is the same as adding an "e" after the vowel.

ps: it IS a very beautiful name!

Answer 5

Umlaut (you spell it correctly) is a German speciality
It changes the quality of the sound
exple Korn, Körner (one grain, grains)
pronunciation: corn, curner

Your name looks and probably sounds very attractive.
It is certainly not German.
You think it is Latin, ok: cäelis (or cöelis) means Heavens.
I have never heard this as a name.

What puzzles me is the way you pronounce it.
For me it sounds like cäe (as in care), or cöe (as in curb) lees
In later Latin (like from the 14th century on) it was pronounced
cöe-lees like in tsar or tsetse fly

Anyway, enjoy your lovely name with the knowledge that it is
a later form of Latin and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

You are welcome!

Answer 6

the umlaut in latin words makes the two vowels be on different sylables, thus it is spelt as if were to be read with three sylables: Co-e-lis. The umlaut suggests that it should not be read as Cœ-lis.

A german name spelt like that would be read in english as Kir-lis (british "ir") or Ku-lis. ("u" as in US cut.)

Perhaps you should ask you parents where did they get this name from?

Answer 7

umlaut is german and it's the two points over the o
it doesn't make co sound cho though