Germany to revamp its Phonetic Alphabet

[johnalison]

I'm not up to date with recent changes, but I have read or been told that even les French have a movement to simplify their language, with the abandonment of gender and accents. I don't know how far they have got with this, but it seems that the Germans have largely disposed of that ss thing that looks like a B but I can't be bothered to find.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I'm not up to date with recent changes, but I have read or been told that even les French have a movement to simplify their language, with the abandonment of gender and accents. I don't know how far they have got with this, but it seems that the Germans have largely disposed of that ss thing that looks like a B but I can't be bothered to find.

Neue Rechtschreibung (new correct writing) was introduced about 25 years ago. You're right that the rules for ß changed: it is now only used after long vowels and diphthongs (kussen, grüßen, beißen) but is still very much present. The other big change to me was that they no longer capitalise the various informal "you" words in letters, so Du/Dich/Dir/Ihr/Euch/Euer became du/dich/dir/ihr/euch/euer. The rules about forming compound words were simplified (Schiff + Fahrt = Schifffahrt instead of Schiffahrt) and hyphenation is easier.

To be honest, I have never got the hang of Neue Rechtschreibung and tend to stick to the rules I learned at school. Makes me look like an old fuddy-duddy, but my uncle is a retired professor of German there and he hasn't changed either. If it's good enough for him ...

Just to complete the off-topic digression, there are strong movements is both Germany and France to drop separate titles for unmarried women. "Fräulein" ("little woman") is now very much frowned on and I gather that "Mademoiselle" is on its way out too. Much safer - and politer - to stick to "Frau" and "Madame" for all females, regardless of age and status.

PS ß is called an "eszet" or "ess-zed". It's a concatenation of a short s and a long z. Because early type was all made in Germany, and because the long z wasn't needed for English, Scottish printers used it instead of yogh, which wasn't included. Which is which Menzies, Dalziel, Culzean and so on have a z in them which sounds somewhere between a g and a y.

 

[Stemar]

I'm not up to date with recent changes, but I have read or been told that even les French have a movement to simplify their language, with the abandonment of gender and accents. I don't know how far they have got with this, but it seems that the Germans have largely disposed of that ss thing that looks like a B but I can't be bothered to find.

T'ain't only the French. The British have been at it for years, with about as much success as the French are likely to have. Ghoti anyone?

Over 7000 languages in the world. I wonder how many of them fit into the A-Z alphabet, never mind Alpha-Zulu

 

[johnalison]

T'ain't only the French. The British have been at it for years, with about as much success as the French are likely to have. Ghoti anyone?

Over 7000 languages in the world. I wonder how many of them fit into the A-Z alphabet, never mind Alpha-Zulu

The difference being that the British move for simplification has got no further than the adoption a few americanisms, especially in the scientific field, such as ‘estrogen’, though not by me. In the case of the French, there is a more official policy, but I don’t know how far this has got. French without genders or accents sounds strange to me, in spite of my incompetence in the language.

 

[Stemar]

All I can say is that it hasn't got as far as any of Milady's family. It seems to be a French trait to do exactly what they want until there's an official pronouncement. Then do exactly what they want.

 

[johnalison]

All I can say is that it hasn't got as far as any of Milady's family. It seems to be a French trait to do exactly what they want until there's an official pronouncement. Then do exactly what they want.

They have their Academie Francaise to rule on such matters. I believe that it is held in the same high regard as our government.