Hello Xigung,

About the graphemes <ä> and <ö>.

> Try then to simultaneously answer the two questions
> 1) why was a "dot" used,
> 2) why was the dot(s) placed above the letter?
> The answer, as I have understood it, is that it was
> simply a question of borrowing from another letter,
> namely the "i", which is the origin of the dot placed
> above the letter.

The german (fraktur) letters <ä> and <ö> where initially written as A and O
with a small <e> ontop of them, to indicate that the pronounciation should be
closer to /e/.

Before the introduction of <ä> and <ö> into swedish writing, we used <æ>
and <ø> which originally were ligatures of a+e and o+e.

The swedish grapheme <å> (was designed the same way modelling the early <ä>.
So, indicating it should be pronounced closer to /o/. (In modern Swedish, /å/
is equivalent to [o:], and it has been for quite some time, since original Old
Swedish /a:/ has shifted to /o:/). It was used sporadically in the 15th
century, but became very common after the book printer Jörgen Richolff used
it in all books printed at Kungliga tryckeriet from 1526 and onwards,
primarily the New Testament (August 1526).

The reason for the change in Sweden was that the first swedish book printers
used german types, this occured in the 16th century. They where not
incorporated into danish writing. (here is an example:
http://www.danmark.dk/forside.asp)

<ä> and <ö> with dots, instead of an small e, developed out of "den
senmedeltida gotiska skrivstilens motsvarande typer", according to Wessén,
1995. It could be difficult to see the difference between ä and o in fraktur
printing, while the ä was written with an e. The dots where more clearer. The
dots where introduced in antikva in 1730, and in fraktur about a hundred years
later, also according to Wessén.

> Then some time later the "double-horned o" must have
> arrived in Iceland as a Danish export and came in vogue
> there.

I believe I've read somewhere, that the adoption of <ö> into modern icelandic
writing was in part because of a wish to distance themselves from denmark
after the independence, to whom iceland for quite some time and been a
province. Maybe someone else on the list could clarify this. It is, in any
case, not a danish export.

> Any way, as I have understood from perusing some
> textbooks on modern Icelandic, the ö is now a
> diphtong - can you confirm this? (pronounced in
> a way that is best reflected by the combination
> "ai" relative to Norwegian)

Modern Icelandic <ö> is pronounced as Swedish /ö/. Icelandic <æ>, is
however pronounced as /ai/.

Kind regards,
Gordon
Stockholm, Sweden