Århus Mayor Nicolai Wammen is looking to get rid of the diacritic above Denmark´s second city´s name to revert to its original Aa in order to unify foreign and domestic usage of the name.

The Danish alphabet has 29 letters, of which Å is the 29th. In the language reform of 1948 Å replaced the traditional Aa in denoting the character and sound of what linguists term a long ‘a’. Some cities have maintained the form Aa in their names, including Aalborg and Aabenraa.

“As mayor I am proposing that we remove the circle above the ‘a’ and spell Århus with two a’s. My job as mayor is to do the best for the city,” Wammen says.

“It will be better for Århus if we avoid having to spell the city with two a’s abroad and å here at home,” he adds.

Wammen says that the decision on changing the spelling of the name of Århus would require a decision by the city council, which he hopes will be taken during the current electoral period.

Although often mistaken as a diacritic or accent, the circle above the ‘A’ is in fact a type of ligature and an integral part of the letter or glyph.