Lee wrote: " Since every unaccented vowel (except for 'u' after 'q' and between 'g' and 'e' or 'i') is always pronounced in Spanish, it seems there is no need to put an accent mark over the 'e' to indicate that it should be pronounced separately." Thank you Lee. However, your statement is valid only for someone writing in Spanish. For someone writing in Latin the dieresis is necessary to preserve the original syllabification because ae in Latin is pronounced as one sound, not two. Other names which typically get pruned of a syllable or two in the English speaking world: Danaë, Aloë, Kalenchoë, Leucothoë and all of those words ending in –oides (the o and the i are to be pronounced separately). If you are following this discussion, perhaps you are wondering why, if the dieresis is necessary in the words cited, it is not shown in the words ending in –oides. The reason is similar to the rule Lee cited for Spanish: just as a native speaker of Spanish does not have to be told to pronounce the a and e in amancaes separately, someone trained in Latin knows that oi is not a diphthong in Latin (the corresponding “look alike” combination in Greek, omicron-iota, is a diphthong pronounced oi) – and so the dieresis in Latin words ending in –oides is redundant (just as it would be redundant to write amancaës in a Spanish text). Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/