I’ve got a sheet of very pleasant music with the title of “O Du Frohliche” (the lower case ‘o’ has two little dots over it). Can any of you dopers translate that - I’d sort of like to know what I’m playing. It would be sort of off-putting if it meant “O I really love Hitler”.
I think you’re talking about this Christmas carol:
The little dots are an umlaut.
Babel fish makes it as: O you merry ones
Quick Google gives this:
Thanks a bunch, guys! That was fast - just what I wanted to know.
And a cognate of the English “frolic”, btw.
A better translation of fröhlich would be happy.
I’d maybe go with Joyful or Merry…there’s a hint of elation with froehlich. But Happy is good enough.
But that’s only without the umlaut, right?
Just in case you don’t know, adding an E after a vowel is a common way to indicate a umlauted vowel. oe == ö
I didn’t know, ignorance fought.
Nonetheless, no e after a vowel for Ue! One Year!
Not only do I now have the translation, but I will never in my life forget what an ö is!