Re: USAGE: German revised spellings

James Campbell wrote:

> Evidently, the German spellings are being revised. Who by, why, when, how
> etc?
Who: the governments of the F.R., Switzerland, and Austria.
Why: simplicity, rationality, less specialized typesetting software.
When: starting now (1998) through 2005
How: an international orthography standard hammered out over many years.

What's changed (incomplete):

        a few uses of a-umlaut instead of e, when etymologically sound
        sharp s now used only after long vowels
        elimination of the hyphenations "schiff-fahren" for
                "schiffahren" (now "schifffahren" whether
                hyphenated or not) and "Zuk-ker" for "Zucker"
                (now "Zu-cker")
        many loanwords now optionally germanized ("Delfin")
        small changes to capitalization rules (more, not less)
        some compounds divided ("Rad fahren", not "radfahren";
                compare "Auto fahren")
        hyphenated compounds (a la English) are gone ("Sexappeal")

More details are available in English at
http://www.triacom.com/archive/germanspelling.en.html or auf
Deutsch at http://www.duden.bifab.de/rechtschreibung/recht_fragen.html
(by the new rules, Duden is no longer authoritative, but it's
still very well respected of course).

> More to the point, how does one now spell 'Ka"nguruh'?
The final "h", warranted neither by pronunciation nor etymology,
is gone.

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)