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Re: German+Hungarian question

From:Stephen Mulraney <ataltane.conlang@...>
Date:Saturday, September 3, 2005, 17:58
On 9/3/05, Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:
> > Hi! > > caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> writes: > > --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Stephen Mulraney > > > > >In any case, the German substitution of following "e" for umlaut > > seems > > >to be peculiar among writing systems that I know of, and I guess it > > >only arose because German words are occasionally written in this > > >fashion even when umlauts are available, by native users. So the > > >method is well known among Germans. > > > > As I understand it, it is rather the umlaut substituting for the "e." > > Exactly, and sometimes Fraktur fonts provide umlauts written as small > 'e' above the vowel.
Ah, indeed! I've seen this a few times. But about which came first - I know things developed this way, but my description was intended to be synchronic. I would be surprised to hear that users of German think "ah, there's meant to be an 'e' after this 'u' - I'll just write it above the 'u' (in this conventionalised manner)"! Ah! Right! I always wondered how the glyph came about as the printed
> 'e' does not look similar. That's right, in German cursive > (Sütterlin), the 'e' is very similar to two strokes: > > http://www.peter-doerling.de/Lese/Alphabet.htm
(Try to write 'Aluminium' in this font -- it's hilarious!) Sütterlin is insane! I've seen similar typefaces in the 'how to write German cursively' section of old manuals. A couple of times some some-autonomous and not-really-paying-attention part of my brain has seen this and though - 'huh? German in Cyrillic?!' **Henrik
>
Stephen -- Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of Stephen Mulraney matter at or near the earth's surface relative ataltane@gmail.com to other matter; second, telling other people http://ataltane.ath.cx:8181 to do so. -- Bertrand Russell http://livejournal.com/~ataltane