# People who think using the ligature "æ" makes them look smart are wankers **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 21, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219 "2008-03-21T14:10:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/101 "2008-03-22T18:52:03Z")
For years, I’ve been wanting to type that cool-looking Spanish n with the tilde on top. But, I never bothered to learn how. I kept telling myself that I’d figure it out mañana. Finally, this thread inspired me to do it. Am I one of the über-cool kids now? ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/102 "2008-03-22T19:24:51Z")
Dear OP, On behalf of the proud nation of Norway: Gå føck yoursælf. We _like_ our three-letter lead in the alphabet. (abc . . . rstuvwxyz æ ø å) ETA: I’ve yet to find a way to explain the æøå sounds over the internet, but the “Å” sounds like “oh” when you exhale and drag it out. Ø is similiar to ö (in swedish/norwegian use they’re usually used interchangably) and æ is basically the dipthtong for ae, albiet those sounds are pronounced differently in Norwegian) ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/103 "2008-03-22T19:33:06Z")
> [@Freddy the Pig](#): > > For years, I’ve been wanting to type that cool-looking Spanish n with the tilde on top. But, I never bothered to learn how. I kept telling myself that I’d figure it out mañana. > > Finally, this thread inspired me to do it. > > Am I one of the über-cool kids now? Magnífico. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/104 "2008-03-22T19:33:49Z")
[QUOTE=Ellis Dee] Cool tip. That’s not an OS thing, btw. It seems to only work in Microsoft Word. For example, it doesn’t work in this reply window. I’m guessing it does on the Mac. [/QUOTE] That’s right. Microsoft Word has keyboard shortcuts similar to the Mac OS shortcuts, but that’s only in MS word but not in Outlook or Internet Explorer for example. On the Macintosh the shortcuts are in the OS so they work in any program. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/105 "2008-03-22T19:51:50Z")
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried] That’s right. Microsoft Word has keyboard shortcuts similar to the Mac OS shortcuts, but that’s only in MS word but not in Outlook or Internet Explorer for example. On the Macintosh the shortcuts are in the OS so they work in any program. [/QUOTE] Ohmygod - I never noticed! I knew the shortcuts didn’t work in some programs (in which case I opened Word, made the character, and copied and pasted to the other program). I never realized that “some programs” is actually “all programs except Word”. :smack: I don’t use Outlook at home (being a Thunderbird fan) so I can’t check until Monday, but I assume you can use the shortcuts in Outlook if you tell it to use Word to edit messages? I’m pretty sure I’ve used those shortcuts in Outlook messages that I send from work (and I do have it set to use Word to edit messages). ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/106 "2008-03-22T21:35:49Z")
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach] Pretentiousness, thy name is _“Hallowe’en”_. [/QUOTE] Speaking of that, don’t get me started on “Hawai’i.” The name for the fiftieth US state in English is Hawaii. Spelling it “Hawai’i” is like calling Germany Deutschland for no good reason. > [@Gukumatz](#): > > On behalf of the proud nation of Norway: > Gå føck yoursælf. Gladly. (But my post was directed at users of the written English language, which does not use those diacriticals or ligatures in the first place.) ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/107 "2008-03-22T22:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Speaking of that, don’t get me started on “Hawai’i.” The name for the fiftieth US state in English is Hawaii. Spelling it “Hawai’i” is like calling Germany Deutschland for no good reason. [/QUOTE] The state’s official web page has the apostrophe in the name at the top of the page (but does not use the apostraphe in the body of the page), the state’s university system uses the apostrophe in its official name, and wikipedia informs me that most hawaiians pronounce the name with a stop where the apostrophe sometimes goes. It seems hard to argue that the apostraphe is not at least optional. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/108 "2008-03-22T22:10:42Z")
(Elsewhere at the University’s website, however, I am informed that the mark is not an apostrophe but a glottal. It doesn’t tell me how to make the distinction on my keyboard, though.) -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/109 "2008-03-23T01:11:51Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Speaking of that, don’t get me started on “Hawai’i.” The name for the fiftieth US state in English is Hawaii. Spelling it “Hawai’i” is like calling Germany Deutschland for no good reason. [/quote] You know, if someone from Hawai’i wants to spell it “Hawai’i”…as if they once had their own language and culture, or something…I say we let 'em. It’s the least we can do. (The very least.) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/110 "2008-03-23T01:47:58Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] Sometimes when people write in German, and they can’t do umlauts for whatever reason, they just put an e after the letter to be umlauted. Maybe that’s why someone would do it, but then it would be more like /ε/. I don’t know why anyone would put it in “encyclopedia,” or why OP thinks they do it to look “smart.” [/QUOTE] In this case, to fight ignorance, it’s because the legal name of the corporation is _Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc._, and if you go to the Britannica website, the æ is used in its name. So while the OP may have thought it pretentious, in the case of the Britannica it’s just being technically accurate. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/111 "2008-03-23T01:58:24Z")
This is so cool. I love the upside down font. æ–look! I made an æ! Don’t Brits use these a lot? Hæme and stuff like that? How do I do oe on a MacBook? You can’t have enough æs for me. Now I need an umlaut… ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/112 "2008-03-23T02:55:19Z")
[QUOTE=Lightray] I see two possibilities for non-wankerdom in this case: 1. **Litoris** is, in fact, a phoneticist, and is instead a _geek_ (akin to a Tolkeinist naming their kid Finwë) 2. **Litoris** ’ kid is, actually, a Nordic-language speaking Viking. … or maybe some combination of the two. [/QUOTE] There’s a third possibility – I liked the way the name Aiden sounded when changing to the Ædin pronunciation. It’s spelt Aedin on his birth certificate, and I would never try to get others to spell it with the Æ, but when I say his name, it is subtly different from other kids named Aiden. Well, unless I am screeching out his full 4 names, in which case, it becomes very Southern and angry-mom accented 🙂 Dear Og, I am a total nerd, though, so maybe #1 is partially true, too? The boy has no interesting in speaking any of the Nordic languages, but wants to learn Japanese and Spanish, who knows what the future will hold for his desires? The girl has taught herself binary, and is working on hexidecimal, so uhm…yeh, my kids might be geeks too. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/113 "2008-03-23T02:59:19Z")
[QUOTE=Mama Tiger] In this case, to fight ignorance, it’s because the legal name of the corporation is _Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc._, and if you go to the Britannica website, the æ is used in its name. So while the OP may have thought it pretentious, in the case of the Britannica it’s just being technically accurate. [/QUOTE] There’s nothing stopping them from changing their name to the modern spelling. They just haven’t done so because they want to look old-timey like a store called “Ye Olde Encyclopædia Shoppe.” ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/114 "2008-03-23T03:25:38Z")
Or maybe because it’s a British corporation and they still use the æ a lot more than Americans do. Frankly, in the “looking like a wanker” scale, this one barely makes it move, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/115 "2008-03-23T03:27:34Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] How do I do oe on a MacBook? You can’t have enough æs for me. Now I need an umlaut… [/QUOTE] On a Mac, Option-’ is æ. Option-q is œ. Option-u is combining-umlaut: type it and then type another letter afterwards to sit under the umlaut. Theoretically, with Unicode you should be able to type _any_ letter and have it combine with the umlaut, but it didn’t work with æ. I _could_ pick _ǣ_ from the Character Palette, though; a macron is almost an umlaut. 😉 I’m using the US Extended keyboard mapping because it’s Unicode and has all these extra key-combinations. Thus I can type Option-^ and get a combining circumflex, which fits nicely on top of the g when I want to type _Ĝis!_. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/116 "2008-03-23T04:01:11Z")
[QUOTE=Mama Tiger] Or maybe because it’s a British corporation and they still use the æ a lot more than Americans do. Frankly, in the “looking like a wanker” scale, this one barely makes it move, IMO. [/QUOTE] EB hasn’t been a British institution for more than a century. It’s been written and published in the US since 1901 and is currently owned by a Swiss concern. I learned this from an article in the Encyclopædia Britannica so it must be true. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/117 "2008-03-23T17:23:31Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] On a Mac, Option-’ is æ. Option-q is œ. Option-u is combining-umlaut: type it and then type another letter afterwards to sit under the umlaut. Theoretically, with Unicode you should be able to type _any_ letter and have it combine with the umlaut, but it didn’t work with æ. I _could_ pick _ǣ_ from the Character Palette, though; a macron is almost an umlaut. 😉 I’m using the US Extended keyboard mapping because it’s Unicode and has all these extra key-combinations. Thus I can type Option-^ and get a combining circumflex, which fits nicely on top of the g when I want to type _Ĝis!_. [/QUOTE] Like this? œ Cool! Güt! Ich möchte alle der keyboard options jetzt! (I’ve lost most of mein Deutsch, as you can see). So very cool…danke. Ok, one more: the Norwegian slash through the o–that’d be cool. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/118 "2008-03-23T17:34:10Z")
Ø All the characters you could want, and more, [here](http://home.earthlink.net/~awinkelried/keyboard_shortcuts.html). ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/119 "2008-03-23T17:52:27Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] Like this? œ Cool! Güt! Ich möchte alle der keyboard options jetzt! (I’ve lost most of mein Deutsch, as you can see). So very cool…danke. Ok, one more: the Norwegian slash through the o–that’d be cool. Any ideas? [/QUOTE] See Mac help for instructions on how to start the keyboard viewer. ø is Option-o; þ is Option-t; ð is Option-d. Any of these can be shifted. Furthermore, £ is Option-3; € is Shift-Option-2. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219/120 "2008-03-23T19:47:48Z")
The Wikipedia page on [“Pedophilia”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia) points out that the “classic” spelling is with æ - pædophilia “to avoid confusion with pedophilia, which etymologically means attraction to the ground”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-think-using-the-ligature-ae-makes-them-look-smart-are-wankers/442219.md?page=7)