The capital sharp S in now part of the official German orthography

Re:The capital sharp S in now part of the official German or... by didsomeonesay on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @03:56AM (#14694284)

In the German orthography reform of the 1990s the "ss" replaced the "ß" after short vowels. But after long vowels it is still used.

So with current spelling system, it's possible to distinguish words pronounced with long vowels from the ones with short vowels (e.g. by a German learner who sees a word for the first time). So it does have its advantages.

I guess this goes back to the origins of the ß - it can be interpreted as either a ligature of ſs=ss or ſz=sz (ſ is the "long s" which is no longer used).

Maybe we should go back to write the long vowel words with "sz". I am sure that would irritate everybody :D

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Re:The capital sharp S in now part of the official German or... by taejo on Tuesday July 04, 2017 @06:20AM (#14694868)

In the current orthography, a single consonant causes the previous vowel to be read as long, and this holds for `ß`, which is considered in the current orthography to be a single letter (though it was historically a ligature). Changing `ß` to `sz` would make an exception to this general rule.

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