Re: German style orthography

On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 08:28:17 -0800, bob thornton <arcanesock@...> wrote:

>--- Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> wrote:
>
>> Since word-initial |s| is always /z/ in German, I've
>> seen |ß| used in
>> transcriptions of foreign languages (e.g. "ßänks"
>> for "thanks" in a
>> tourist's guidebook/phrasebook of English) when the
>> author wanted to
>> make clear that an /s/ sound was intended. It looks
>> a bit strange to
>> me, though, since |ß| does not occur word-initially
>> in any native
>> German word.
>>
>
>So, perhaps use eszett initially, and s medially for /z/?
That would be possible. I've read that Jacob Grimm (one of the two
fairy-tale Grimms) proposed to use the long &#383; for /z/ and round s for /s/,
though he abandoned this proposition later.

gry@s:
j. 'mach' wust

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