Baïla vs. Baila

Question

Following the question «Conmigo vs. Comigo», I paid attention that in Portuguese Wiki, in the article «Baila Baila Comigo», the name of the song «Baila, baila comigo» by the Dominó band is written in a bit different way — with diaeresis / diacritic / tréma / umlaut — «Baïla Baïla Comigo», is there any difference between Baila and Baïla? When should I use the first one and when the latter one?

Answer 1

It's probably only playing with the French ï, the same way it's mixing some Portuguese and Spanish ("la dança") in the same cover (from the wikipedia link):

Capa do single francês intitulado "Baïla Baïla Comigo: La Dança do Nombril".

For, as already pointed out, there isn't any ï in Portuguese.

Answer 2

There isn't and there has never been a diaeresis, umlaut, trema, or the like over the vowel "i" in the Portuguese Language. That must have been a joke from whoever had the idea. Then again, before the Ortographic Agreement went into effect, there was the "trema", which was exactly the same sign, over the vowel "u". Semantically, therefore, there is no difference between the two words you posted as "baïla" is not a Portuguese word.

EDIT - Now that I've seen the album cover released in France, I realize why a diacritical mark, "l'accent tréma", was used in "baïla". In French, l'accent tréma is used with vowels to indicate that they are pronounced separately from a preceding vowel. In this particular case, the ï indicates that the "i" is pronounced as a separate vowel, just as in "naïve" and not as in "français".