Brontes - question

As far as I remember from my readings, the Brontes were a very English family. Why then is their surname correctly spelled with a pair of little Germanic-looking dots hovering over the 'e' ? (According to my software manual, this is called a dieresis). Do any other words or names that are English have this special feature? Just wondering . . .

From Wikipedia

Origin of name

The Brontë family can be traced to the Irish clan mac Aedh Ó Proinntigh, which literally means 'son of Aedh, grandson of Proinnteach'. Aedh is a male name derived from Aodh, meaning "fire". "Proinnteach" ("the bestower") originated as a byname for a generous person. Literally meaning "banquet hall," the word is composed of the Irish proinn ("banquet") (a cognate of the Latin prandium "meal") and teach ("house", "hall").

Ó Proinntigh was earlier anglicised as Prunty and sometimes Brunty. At some point, the father of the sisters, Patrick Brontë (born Brunty), conceived of the alternate spelling with the diaeresis over the terminal "e" to indicate that the name has two syllables. It is not known for certain what motivated him to do so, and multiple theories exist to account for the change. He may have wished to hide his humble origins. As a man of letters, he would have been familiar with classical Greek and may have chosen the name after the cyclops Brontes (literally 'thunder').

Interesting! Thanks for looking that up. I have that Wikipedia thing, so I could have done that myself. Still, by having it here other people who think it's an interesting question can read your post too. Thanks again. (of course we could also get into a debate about the accuracy of Wikipedia . . . one of my 13 yr old daughter's friends tells her that everything on Wikipedia is automatically wrong. I'm finding 13 year olds have very erratic reasoning skills).

There doesn't seem to be much info on why Patrick Bronte changed the family name. Even the Bronte Society doesn't shed much light on it. http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/brontes/patrick/patrick.asp

I'm sure Bronte experts will be along here shortly ;)

Nothing to add on Brontë, but on the diaeresis in general: it has existed as a diacritical mark in English since at least the sixteenth century, presumably borrowed from Greek. At least some of the words it used to be used for have lost a syllable and the diacritic over the years, e.g. aërial, in others it's been dropped or replaced by a hyphen without a change in pronunciation, e.g. coöperate > co-operate, cooperate. One word where you still see it regularly is naïve; others include Greek names like Chloë and Zoë (although you also see those spelled in other ways). Diaereses are fitted as standard parts to some French cars.

I would guess Patrick B. picked it as a way of writing the name that would appeal to a pedantic classicist, and more classy than a simple "-y" or "-ie". An acute accent might have been problematic, as appearing to be French in those days would be at least as bad as appearing to be Irish...

#5 as appearing to be French in those days would be at least as bad as appearing to be Irish...

lol Some things never change.

#3 Accuracy of Wikipedia
I always treat Wikipedia with great caution having found many factual errors, even in what appear to be well presented academic entries. The real value in Wikipedia is the list of references provided with an article.

#5

I would imagine that most people of the time would associate Brontë with Nelson (and through him Sicily).

Patrick changed his name in 1802 - 3 years after Nelson became the Duke of Brontë. Whether out of honour, or hoping for reflected glory, or just the similarity between the original anglicisation of his surname and Bronte I think there is some connection there.

>7 andyl:
Of course! I'd completely forgotten that.

Diaereses are fitted as standard parts to some French cars.

Thank you, thorold - you've made me laugh for the first time today! (My first car was French, and the same age as me.)

>7 andyl:,8
Further reflection prompted by a coincidental (or should that be coïncidental?) mention of Bronte station in a film about Sicilian railways and a bit more Wikipedia-hopping: that still only partially explains the diaeresis. The place Bronte doesn't need any diacritical marks, because it's pronounced in the normal Italian way. So Nelson's title was presumably conferred as "Bronte". He must have thought up the diaeresis himself: according to Wikipedia he subsequently signed himself "Nelson & Brontë" (I don't think you're really supposed to mix foreign and domestic titles like that, but I don't suppose anyone would have had the nerve to tell Nelson). As far as I can work out, his brother and other later holders of the title used "Bronté".

>9 sarahemmm:
Isn't Wikipedia wonderful - I've also just discovered that the Citroën diaeresis is an affectation too - the (Jewish-Dutch) Citroen family apparently added it when they moved to France.

>5 thorold:

The New Yorker still spells words like coöperate with a diaeresis, a practice I find charming.

So do I. I much prefer it to cooperate which makes me think of chicken coops!

No, surely the Cooperate is the official residence of the person responsible for the maintenance of casks in a royal dockyard? <bing!>

yes that is certainly a better image

My two cents. The diaeresis is not only to note a separate syllable but also to suggest the pronunciation. Traditionally, Brontë is pronounced Bron - tay; not Bront-tee.
It has been suggested that Patrick changed his name from Prunty to Brontë because of his admiration of Adm Horatio Nelson, Duke of Bronte as of 13 August 1799. However, according to "The Letters of Charlotte Bronte" by Margaret Smith, there is but a single mention of Nelson. Compunding the scepticism is the fact that the City of Drogheda in Ireland is a "twin" city to bronte, Sicily. The reason for that "twinning" was to honour grandfather Hugh Prunty, born near Drogheda because it was "he" who changed the family name. Admittedly a specious argument but it should not be dismissed out of hand. Ciao!

Well, for my two cents worth I've only ever heard the name pronounced, "Bron-tay", as you so phonetically put it. :-)

As regards, Drogheda, I don't believe it was ever given a City Charter.

At the time of the 2011 census Drogheda Borough's population was:
Population (Number) 30,393
Males (Number) 14,862
Females (Number) 15,531

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