2 ms·
in German there is an official convention for the non us-ascii letters, AFIK it predates computers and is rooted in germanic dialects developing differently and
by dathinab 3y ago
in German there is an official convention for the non us-ascii letters, AFIK it predates computers and is rooted in germanic dialects developing differently and later stuff like non-german specific type writers, printing press machines, etc.
ä => ae
ö => oe
ü => ue
ß => ss
but one gotcha is that it's a fuzzy one way trip, some words, especially city names, can have a ae,oe,ue in their correct native spelling. Worse ss is a normal language building block in German which is pronounced differently then ß so writing it as ss is quite confusing for anyone which doesn't happen to know that it's correct spelling is with ß. To top that of some cases of ß spelling have officially changed to ss spelling over time due to people anyway pronouncing it more like a ss and getting it wrong all the time. And to some degree ß is semi-official abandoned by now.
- Attrecomet 3y agoThe letters ß and ss are pronounced exactly the same, a hard 's' sound. Their effect on the preceding sounds is slightly different, though -- 'ss' makes the vowel short, 'ß' keeps it long. In all, a rather minute difference.
- mxmlnkn 3y agoAfter learning that ß is the ligature of literally "sz", I am astounded that "ss" is used instead to replace ß.