Date:  Tue, 14 Dec 1993 08:48:12 EST

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: No one



I've always assumed that the "correct" spelling was the one above, for the

reason cited (i.e. to avoid misparsing it as the feminine of 'noon'). Of

course, other such misparsings take place all the time without protection

(misled, beribboned,...), but there does seem to be a tendency to break up

non-tautosyllabic 'oo' sequences, either by diaeresis, hyphen, or when

possible separating with word boundary. The former two options are both used

for 'co-operate', the latter two for 'no(-)one'. In fact, the message that

arrived in my mailer right after yours (from a different net) contained

several instances of 'no-one'. I've also seen 'noone', but it's always

confused me at the first pass for the obvious reason.

   One nice dialectal divergence resulting from the diaeresis-less occurrence

of 'oo' is that between the Yale Co-op and the Harvard Coop, where the latter

(but of course not the former) sounds as if it should house chickens.

Spelling pronunciation, one presumes.

                           Larry