ẞ , ß ( escet - from German Eszett ; also known as “S sharp”, German scharfes S , and a number of other names) - a ligature from ſʒ ( ſz ; in Gothic ) or ſs (in antiqua ), the first element which is the so-called " long S ".
| Latin letter escet | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ẞß | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Specifications | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title | ẞ : latin capital letter sharp s ß : latin small letter sharp s | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unicode | ẞ : U + 1E9E ß : U + 00DF | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| HTML code | ẞ : ẞ or ẞß : ß or ß | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Utf-16 | ẞ : 0x1E9E ß : 0xDF | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Url | ẞ :% E1% BA% 9E ß :% C3% 9F | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Content
Use
It is currently used only in German script , but until the 19th century it was more or less regularly used in almost all European scripts on a Latin basis , especially in italics .
In German dictionaries, when ordered alphabetically, the sign ß is usually equated to ss . It should be remembered that replacing the two letters ss with the ß symbol is not always justified, since ß not only transmits the sound [ s ], but also marks the longitude of the previous vowel or diphthong , while the use of ss indicates that the previous vowel is short. For example: das Floß [ f l o ː s ] “raft” and die Flosse [ ˈ f l ɔ s ə ] “fin”. Prior to the 1996 reform, the ß sign was also used after brief vowels at the end of words and before consonants, while retaining this in the formation of compound words.
Since 1906, escet has not been used in Switzerland , but ss is always written. The reason for this may have been the spread of the typewriter . On the Swiss single keyboard layout, it was necessary to make room for French and Italian letters ( ç , à , é and è ).
Capital letter escet
Until 2017, only the lowercase style was officially used in the ß ligature, although the uppercase ẞ was entered in Unicode back in version 5.1, released in April 2008. If necessary, write the word containing ß only in capital letters ß is most often replaced by SS . In cases where such a replacement led to the formation of three S in a row (for example, in the word Maßstab ), it was previously recommended to use SZ instead of SS or to separate the word with a hyphen : MASZSTAB , MASS-STAB . Now, when the 1996 German spelling reform lifted the ban on repeating three identical consonants in a row, this rule apparently no longer applies. It was also recommended that SZ be used where otherwise unwanted homography would occur. In June 2017, it was decided to officially introduce the capital letter ẞ in the German alphabet for the convenience of transmitting this letter when typing words in capital letters [1] [2] .
The same replacement of ß with ss (or sz , in the above cases) is used when typing in conditions of technical limitations (in old typewriting , telegraph , etc.), as well as when reproducing German names and names in other languages in Latin writing.
Similar characters
The Latin ligature ß should not be confused with the Greek lowercase letter beta (β). When it is necessary to quote Greek words in German texts, a lowercase beta in another style, ϐ, can be used to clearly distinguish characters.
See also
- Reform of German Spelling (1996)
- List of latin letters
Notes
- ↑ Neue Rechtschreibregeln: Das große Eszett ist da! (German) , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (29. Juni 2017). Date of treatment June 1, 2018.
- ↑ Das Alphabet bekommt einen neuen Buchstaben (German) , Süddeutsche Zeitung (29. Juni 2017). Date of treatment June 1, 2018.
Links
- Letter ẞ on graphemica.com
- The letter ß on graphemica.com
- Signa Nr. 9 - aktuelle Studien zum großen Eszett
- Initiative zur Einführung des Großbuchstaben Eszett
- ORF.at: Das Comeback des ß