Dear Peter, hi, by the way! My understanding is that role with the accent used to be the established spelling in British English, at least among educated circles. Over time, people have become more inclined to see this spelling as pretentious (as opposed to sophisticated). (After all, other imported words don't keep their original spelling (see Doppelganger), and role has become common enough that it doesn't feel like a foreign word any longer.) In particular the OED has hung on to accents on loan words. I am wondering whether in mathematics, it hasn't become perpetuated by people whose first language isn't English - I know that I've used role with the accent in the past, because that's how I thought it was supposed to be spelled (so I consistently spelled it like that in non-mathematical writings too). Non-native speakers tend to be more sensitive towards issues like that, so wanting to be very much correct, they may be more inclined to stick with the more old-fashioned version. If you look at <http://assets.cambridge.org/97805216/21816/sample/9780521621816ws.pdf> page 9/10 you'll see a discussion of the use of such accents. I've also noted that lately, many people don't bother to set in italics words such as via, presumably because it too has become viewed as a part of the language, rather than an import. That's my two pennyworth anyway. Andrea