Lindstrom Got its Dots Back, Yeah!

       Here's a language story that reminds me of my native Minnesota and sounds just right to me!

       FM's "The World" keeps track of the "The World in Words" as part of its coverage and discovered that the little town of Lindstrom, Minnesota, had lost its "umlaut" over its "o" when the road signs leading into town were repainted.  People began to complain because the vast majority of the 4,442 citizens of Lindstrom are of Swedish inheritance, and that diacritical mark meant the town was pronounced LIND-strohm, not LIND-strm, and that's the way the townsfolk want it to be!

       Governor Mark Dayton finally sent out a fiat ordering the restoration of the two dots.  And his will was carried out.

       Umlauts are really of German origin and used in the German language, but Swedish too apparently.

(You can take a link to the story in print, audio and podcast by clicking here.)