OE (minuscule: oe) is a Latin alphabet grapheme, a ligature of o and e. In mediæval and early modern Latin, it was used to represent the Greek diphthong ?? and in a few non-Greek words, usages that continue in English and French. In French, it is also used in some non-learned words, representing then mid-front rounded vowel-sounds, rather than sounding the same as é or è, those being its traditional French values in the words borrowed from / via Latin.
It is used in the modern orthography for Old West Norse and is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent the open-mid front rounded vowel. In English runology, oe is used to transliterate the Runic letter odal ? (Old English ?ðel 'estate, ancestral home').
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Latin
Classical Latin wrote the o and e separately (as has today again become the general practice), but the ligature was used by medieval and early modern writings, in part because the diphthongal sound had, by Late Latin, merged into the sound [e]. The classical diphthong had the value *[oi?], similar to (standard) English oi as in coil. It occurred most often in borrowings from Greek, rendering that language's ?? (= in majuscule: ??).
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English
A number of words written with oe were borrowed from French and from Latin into English, where the oe is now rarely written. Modern American English spelling usually substitutes e, so diarrhoea has become diarrhea, although there are some exceptions, such as phoenix. In modern British English, the spellings generally keep the o but remove the ligature (e.g. diarrhoea).
The oe ~ oe ~ e is traditionally pronounced as "short E", as "long E" (which = in most dialects [?] or [e] and [i] or [i:] respectively), or as an (unrounded) unstressed vowel. These three Modern-English values interchange with one another in consistent ways, just as do the values within each of the sets from the other vowel-spellings that at the Middle English stage likewise represented non-diphthongs -- except for, as was recognised particularly in certain positions by Dobson (2nd ed. = 1968: 495), a tendency whereby "... long vowels are, in later use, often substituted ... cf. Pres(ent-Day) E(nglish) [i:k?n?mik] 'economic' in place of the popular [ek?n?mik], which (latter) is in accord with the normal rules and must be regarded as the traditional and naturally-developed pronunciation ...".
Note concerning words that English has borrowed from French recently that they do not come under its traditional pronunciation. Instead, in our attempts to approximate the values the French are using for oe in these non-learned words (namely, their [oe] and [ø] in terms of the International Phonetic Alphabet), English-speakers use a variety of substitutions. This involves only a few items of vocabulary, as one can see from a fairly-complete list of words in English that have spellings containing oe ~ oe. These recent borrowings from French include just the likes of: manoeuvre, hors d'oeuvre, oeuvre, oeil de boeuf, etc. Returning to the remaining majority, which does come under the traditional English pronunciation of borrowings from / via pre-modern French and from / via Latin, we can list the examples of them in the following categories, into which they have been divided by developments in our pronunciation since Middle English.
Anywhere that oe ~ oe ~ e is followed by another vowel (no matter the position(s) of stress(es) in the word, entailing that this category overlaps with certain stress-dependent ones below, in which circumstances it then overrides all of them), we pronounce it as "long E", as in: onomatopoeic, onomatopoeia, dyspnoea, apnoea, amenorrhoea, diarrhoea, logorrhoea, Euboea; Boeotia(n), homoeosis and its plural, homoeoses, homoeopathy; homoeopath; homoeopathic, homoeostatic, homoeostasis, homoeozoic, homoeomorphic, and homoeomorphism.
In open syllables immediately following / preceding ones that bear primary or secondary stress, we pronounce an oe ~ oe ~ e as an (unrounded) unstressed vowel, that is, as the unstressed one that sounds like "short I" or instead of it for some dialects as shwa, the examples being: tragoedy, (arch)dioecese; oeconomisation, oesophageal; oesophagus, oecologist, oecology, oeconomise, oeconomist, oeconomy, oedema, oenologist, oenology, ..., poenology, and Phoenicia(n). As another option (except in the first subset, that is, save in tragoedy and (arch)dioecese), especially when we want to enunciate more clearly, we alternatively add an additional (secondary) stress on this vowel and then pronounce it as long E.
We also use long E for oe ~ oe ~ e in a primary-stressed open syllable that lies within the final two syllables of the word (noting that, when counting the syllables in this regard, one excludes from consideration certain suffixes even if they do add syllables, such as in the following words -es and -ing, and even not-merely-grammatical suffixes like -cide if one lets the pronunciation of the unsuffixed word carry over to the suffixed one, as one however does not do in genocide, homicide, patricide, etc.), as in: subpoena(ing), phoenix(es), (foeticide, which belongs in this category if the pronunciation of its first vowel as long E indeed due to carry-over from the next word,) foetus, Phoebe, foetor, poenal, Croesus, and amoeba.
And we likewise use long E for oe ~ oe ~ e in primary-stressed open syllables that lie in third-to-final position if the final syllable begins with a vowel while the one in-between ends in a vowel other than o or u (or else did prior to a blending of that vowel with the preceding consonant), as in coeliac and Moesia(n), which thus = (depending upon the dialect) ['si:liæk] or ['si:?iæk] and (depending more on idiolect than dialect) ['mi:??(n)] ~ ['mi??(n)] ~ ['misi?(n)].
This leaves for last the various situations where we have "short E", as what Dobson called in the quote above the "naturally-developed pronunciation" though "the long vowels are, in later use, often substituted":
- for an oe ~ oe ~ e lying in a secondarily-stressed (open or closed) syllable not adjacent to the primary-stressed one, as in (con)foederation, oecologic(al)(ly), oeconomic(al)(ly), oecumenic(al)(ly) and oestrogenic;
- for an oe ~ oe ~ e in a closed syllable anywhere as long as it bears some stress (so this overlaps with the preceding category), as in oestrogenic; oestrogen; and oestrus;
- for an oe ~ oe ~ e in a primary-stressed syllable that does not lie within the final two of the word (excepting the situation exemplified by coeliac and Moesia(n) that we just discussed), as in Confoederates, (con)foederate (adj.), to (con)foederate, foederal(ly), OEdipal, OEdipus, poenalty, and foetid. The likes of foetid, though superficially exceptional here, do belong in this category because the counting properly includes also final -e that has gone silent since Middle English (and therefore has been left out by some spellings) in those situations where speakers before the -e's demise, such as Chaucer (who did not drop it in rhymes), would have had the -e as an intrinsic part of the word (rather than as just a suffix) -- save for its regularly disappearing where followed with no pause by a word beginning with a vowel or sometimes /h/. As less-circumstantial evidence (than this word's Modern short E) that it contained the final -e, consider both the spelling of its earliest attestation in English recorded by the NED, within "It maketh to blister both handes, & feet, out of which issueth foetide, and stinckinge water." (in a text dating to 1599) and the immediate ancestor of the word, lying between it and Latin's foetidus, -a, -um, namely, Anglo-Norman French fetide, attested 13th c. (in medical texts, the most narrowly datable being in manuscript from circa 1240 of Roger of Salerno's "Chirurgia"). -- Within parallels English has to the foetid, such as acid, arid, avid, placid, rabid, rapid, sapid, squalid, valid, vapid; gelid, intrepid, tepid; frigid, insipid, liquid, livid, rigid, timid, viscid, vivid; florid, solid, and stolid, the stressed syllable's vowel likewise has its short value (or one of its -- where /w/ preceding or /r/ following has created a special short value, as in certain dialects' squalid, florid, and/or arid), again because that syllable did not lie within the word's final two, as is straightforwardly shown for these words too by their French spellings: aride, avide, insipide, liquide, livide, etc.
Other Germanic languages
OE is used in the modern scholarly orthography of Old West Norse, representing the long vowel /ø:/, contrasting with ø, which represents the short vowel /ø/. Recently, however, it has been replaced with ?, as in m?ðr "mothers".
OE is not used in German; loanwords using oe are generally rendered ö, e.g. Ösophagus. A common exception is the French word OEuvre and its compounds (e.g. OEuvreverzeichnis).
Like German, Danish doesn't use oe, but unlike German, Danish replaces oe or oeu in loan words with ø, as in økonomi "economy" from Greek via Latin oeconomia or bøf "beef" from French boeuf
French
In French, oe (called e dans l'o, which means e in the o (a mnemotechnic pun used first at school, sounding like (des) oeufs dans l'eau, meaning eggs in water, sometimes o et e collés, literally o and e glued) is a true linguistic ligature, not just a typographic one (like the fi or fl ligatures), reflecting etymology. It is most prominent in the words moeurs ("mores"), coeur ("heart"), soeur ("sister"), oeuf ("egg"), boeuf ("beef", "steer"), oeuvre ("work") and oeil ("eye"), in which the digraph oeu, like eu, represents the sound [oe] (in other cases, like plurals oeufs ("eggs") and boeufs ("steers"), it stands for [ø]).
French also uses oe in direct borrowings from Latin and Greek. So, "coeliac" in French is coeliaque. In such cases, the oe is classically pronounced [e], or, sometimes, in modern pronunciation, [oe]. In some words, like phénix and économique, the etymological oe is changed to a more French é.
In French placenames of German origin (mostly in and around Alsace-Lorraine, historically Germanic-speaking areas that have changed hands between France and Germany (or Prussia before 1871) a number of times), oe replaces German ö and is pronounced [oe]. Examples include Schoeneck (Moselle), Koetzingue (Haut-Rhin), and Hoerdt (Bas-Rhin).
In all cases, oe is alphabetized as oe, rather than as a separate letter.
When oe occurs in French without the ligature, it is pronounced /wa/, just like words spelt with oi. The most common words of this type are poêle ("stove", "frying pan") and moelleux ("soft"). If the oe is not to be pronounced thus, then a diaeresis, acute or grave accent needs to be added in order to indicate that the vowels should be pronounced separately. For example, Noël, poésie, poète. The exception to this rule is when a morpheme ending in o is joined to one beginning in e, as in électroencéphalogramme, or with the prefix co-, which is always pronounced /ko/ in hiatus with the following vowel, as in coefficient ("ratio", "coefficient").
Transcription
The symbol [oe] is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for the open-mid front rounded vowel. This sound resembles the "oeu" in the French oeuf or the "ö" in the German öffnen. These contrast with French feu and German schön, which have the close-mid front rounded vowel, [ø].
The small capital variant [?] represents the open front rounded vowel in the IPA. Modifier letter small ligature oe (?) is used in extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
The Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA) includes U+1D14 ? LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED OE.
The Teuthonista phonetic transcription system uses several related symbols:
- U+AB40 ? LATIN SMALL LETTER INVERTED OE
- U+AB41 ? LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED OE WITH STROKE
- U+AB42 ? LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED OE WITH HORIZONTAL STROKE
Encodings
In Unicode, the characters are encoded at U+0152 OE LATIN CAPITAL LIGATURE OE (HTML Œ · Œ) and U+0153 oe LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE (HTML œ · œ). In ISO-8859-15, OE is 0xBC and oe 0xBD. In Windows-1252, at positions 0x8C and 0x9C. In Mac-Roman, they are at positions 0xCE and 0xCF.
OE and oe were omitted from ISO-8859-1 (as well as derived standards, such as IBM code page 850), which are still widespread in internet protocols and applications. OE is the only character in modern French that is not included in ISO-8859-1, and this has led to it becoming replaced by 'oe' in many computer-assisted publications (including printed magazines and newspapers). This was due, in part, to the lack of available characters in the French ISO/IEC 646 version that was used earlier for computing. Another reason is that oe is absent from most French keyboards, and as a result, few people know how to input it.
The above-mentioned small capital of the International Phonetic Alphabet is encoded at U+0276 ? LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL OE (HTML ɶ).
Inputting OE and oe
On Microsoft Windows, OE and oe can be entered using the Alt codes 0140 and 0156, i.e. by holding down the Alt key while typing the number 0140 for OE and 0156 for oe respectively on the numeric keypad. In Microsoft Word, oe can additionally be entered using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+? Shift+& then O in quick succession. Moreover, Microsoft Word and some other word processors can also automatically correct French words like soeur to soeur, but in most other applications (e.g. an instant messenger, or a browser) the word will not be corrected.
Using Apple's macOS, starting from Mac OS X Lion, OE and oe can be accessed by holding down O (? Shift+O) or o (O) and clicking on OE and oe respectively in the small menu that appears. Alternatively the Character Viewer can be used to enter special characters. Furthermore, using either the U.S., British, or Swiss keyboard layout, OE and oe are accessed by pressing ? Opt+? Shift+Q and ? Opt+Q respectively. The corresponding key combinations on the French keyboard are ? Opt+? Shift+O and ? Opt+O, or ? Opt+? Shift+Ö and ? Opt+Ö on the German keyboard.
On mobile devices running iOS, Android or Windows Mobile, oe and OE are accessed by holding down O until a small menu is displayed.
With a Compose key the key combination for oe is Compose O E and Compose ? Shift+O ? Shift+E for OE.
In Vim (text editor), use Ctrl+K ? Shift+O ? Shift+E in succession (or Ctrl+K O E for lower-case).
The LaTeX commands are \oe and \OE .
See also
- Oe (digraph)
- Å
- Ä
- Ø
- Ö
- Æ
- List of words that may be spelled with a ligature
References
External links
- Paleography: Special Characters in English Manuscripts, course notes
Bibliography
- De Wilde, G. et al., eds. "Anglo-Norman Dictionary". Accessed 4 April 2017.
- Dobson, E. J. English Pronunciation 1500-1700. 2 vols. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1957; 2nd ed., 1968.
- Jordan, Richard. Handbuch der mittenglischen Grammatik, I. Teil: Lautlehre. Heidelberg: Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1925.
- Murray, James A. H. et al., eds. A New English Dictionary Founded on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society. 10 vols + an 11th which contains "Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography". London: Henry Frowde, 1887-1933.
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