Good News for Minnesota’s Swedes

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is playing punctuation police when it comes to the state's road signs — umlauts included.

The governor issued an executive order Wednesday to restore the two small pronunciation marks above the 'o' on the sign outside of Lindström. The dots were removed from the city limit signs recently due to changing federal guidance for signage.

The disappearing dots have been a source of frustration for the city, which is dubbed "America's Little Sweden." Lindström is about 40 miles northeast of the Twin Cities.

Dayton says he has instructed his Department of Transportation to replace the signs as soon as possible. He says he'll grab a can of white paint and apply the two dots himself if he has to.

Incorporated in 1894, the City of Lindström was first settled by Daniel Lindström who left Sweden for America in 1853. Among the Swedish Emigrants was Erik Norelius, whose personal journals formed the basis of Vilhelm Moberg’s novels of the Swedish Emigration to America. Moberg’s fictional heroes, Karl-Oskar and Kristina Nilsson, are memorialized in statue at the west end of town as a tribute to the area’s early Swedish immigrants. Today, more than 4,400 Minnesotans live in Lindström.

The Lindström area draws an estimated 3,000 Swedish tourists annually.

According to Merriam-Webster, an umlaut is placed over a vowel (ö) in order to indicate a specific pronunciation of a word.