Re: German sharp S uppercase mapping

Walter Tross via Unicode <[email protected]> Sun, 1 Dec 2024 15:36:15 +0100

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On Sun, Dec 1, 2024 at 2:54 PM Otto Stolz via Unicode <
[email protected]> wrote:

> In German orthography, double consonants mark the preceding vowel as
> being short (if there isn’t just a mere co-incidence in a compound,
> e. g. “Mausschwanz” (mouse tail)). As the “a” in “Straße” is long,
> you write “ß”; as the “a” in “Gasse” is short, you write “ss”.
> Cf. <https://grammis.ids-mannheim.de/rechtschreibung/6173>
> and <https://grammis.ids-mannheim.de/rechtschreibung/6180>.
>

And to clarify the need for the ß: it ensures the pronunciation as /s/ as
opposed to /z/
(Straße is pronounced /ʃtʁaːsə/, while *Strase would be pronounced
/ʃtʁaːzə/)

Walter