Typing umlauts - an easy solution

Hello to those wanting to use umlauts or French accents!

I have created a simple document using character map which I keep open when I am corresponding with contacts in Switzerland from which I simply copy and paste what I need as I go along.

It is in Arial as that is my default font but can obviously be converted to another preferred font.

I am attaching it in case anyone wants to use it.

Maggie

Grüezi Maggie,

Very helpful.

I now have my straße in order. 🤓

Grüezi Arno,

Any chance of including 'ß' in your "insert special characters' tool?

>> Any chance of including 'ß' in your "insert special characters' tool?

The ß character is not used in Switzerland :-) They use ss instead.

Alpenrose.

>> I now have my straße in order.

That would be Straße ;-) All nouns in German are capitalised :-) Looks very strange to an English-speaker at first, but at least it makes the nouns easy to spot when you are first learning!

Alpenrose

Doh! I am now embarrassed on two (more) counts. 😖

>> I am now embarrassed on two (more) counts

No need to be! Only people who know German would know about the capitalisation of nouns (and it takes a while to remember to write them with capitals when you are first learning, even after you know).

And even a lot of people who have learnt German wouldn't know about the Swiss use of ss instead of ß.

If you are wondering why the Swiss don't use ß, you might find this article interesting:

Switzerland and Liechtenstein

The 'ß' character was gradually abolished in Switzerland and Liechtenstein from the 1930s onwards, and has now been completely replaced by 'ss'. It has been suggested that the increasing usage of typewriters has been a cause of the disappearance of 'ß'. As Swiss typewriters could be used by the country's German, French, Italian and Rumantsch speakers, keyboard space was limited if keys for all of the accented characters used in these languages were to be included and there was no room for a 'ß' key. After the Neue Zürcher Zeitung became the last Swiss German newspaper to stop using 'ß' in 1974, the character now only appears in a few publications that are aimed at the German-speaking market as a whole rather than at the domestic Swiss market.

joycep.myweb.port.ac.u k/abinitio/alphabet/um lautsz.html

Alpenrose

Hi Alpenrose,

That is very interesting.

The Swiss migration to ss was news to me. I should have known about capitalised nouns though. I did German at school. But is was only for one year as a 3rd language after English and Afrikaans. It was in 1963 or thereabouts so I guess I can be excused. 🤓

Hi Rockoyster and Alpenrose

Thanks for your comments! I did know the Swiss use "ss" not ß but forgot to remove it before posting the document which I also use for other purposes. Sorry if I caused confusion!

I also learned German at school from '59 to '62 but didn't use it much until I started travelling in 2001 by which time I had to learn a whole new set of vocabulary! My school German had been slanted towards Literature and having read Schiller, Goethe etc was not much help when it came to buying food, checking out trains etc.! The grammar had stuck which meant once I learned the new vocabulary, I at least knew how to use it. The use of capital letters for nouns is actually a useful way for learners to find the nouns in a long complicated sentence, I agree. Not much help when you are talking though!

Maggie

Yes, I find that capitalizing the nouns makes them easier to go back to, once you finally located the verb at the end of a 12 line sentence. ;-)

<<"Yes, I find that capitalizing the nouns makes them easier to go back to, once you finally located the verb at the end of a 12 line sentence. ;-)">>

Keeps the brain agile, trying to fit a 12 line sentence into 140 character tweet, and still keep all the verbs at the end. Tough!

Of course, there are some who prefer an agile brain over short tweets...

Slowpoke

>> Yes, I find that capitalizing the nouns makes them easier to go back to, once you finally located the verb at the end of a 12 line sentence. ;-)

:-D

Spot on! You are probably familiar with Mark Twain's hilarious take on the German language, in Appendix D of A Tramp Abroad!

Alpenrose

Yes, indeed. Even almost 140 years later, it is still one of the funniest linguistic takedowns ever written.

The fourth of his eight suggested ways to improve the German language was to "move the Verb further up to the front... to a position where it may be easily seen with the naked eye."

And related to that is Suggestion Six-- "I would require a speaker to stop when he is done, and not hang a string of those useless "haven sind gewesen gehapt haben geworden seins" to the end of his oration."

Wonderful stuff.

And for those who's Interest has been spiked . . . www.gutenberg.org/file s/119/119-h/119-h.htm#Appendix_D