The heavy metal umlaut encroaches into Seattle real estate

Raymond Chen

The heavy metal umlaut is creeping into Seattle real estate. I submit for your consideration the condominium known as Bleü. I can’t even tell what language they are trying to pretend to be. There are other properties in Seattle with dots, but at least the dots aren’t gratuitous. Hotel Ändra in Belltown takes its name from the Swedish word meaning to change. (The hotel is consistent with its use of the dots, but outsiders frequently omit them, changing the hotel’s name to Andra, which means “Others”.) Hjärta Condos takes its name from the Swedish word meaning heart. Hjärta is in the Ballard neighborhood, the traditional center of Scandinavian life in Seattle. (The people who run the Web site can’t seem to remember to put the dots over the a. They often spell it Hjarta, which is not a word in Swedish.)

Note that in Swedish, the dots over the a and o are not umlauts nor are they diaereses. They’re just dots. The ä and ö are not variants of a and o; they are letters in their own right. Sort of how like Q and R are like O and P with a tail, but nobody thinks of them as related letters. It’s just a superficial graphical similarity.

Raymond Chen

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