From: Erkki Kolehmainen (erkki.kolehmainen@kotus.fi)
Date: Tue Apr 26 2005 - 05:23:30 CST
Hello Otto Stolz,
in Swedish the letters å (a with ring above), ä (a with diaeresis) and ö
(o with diaeresis) collate as separate letters after z in level 1.
Regards, Erkki I. Kolehmainen
Otto Stolz wrote:
> Hello Hans Aberg,
>
> you have written:
>
>> The Swedish language symbol ä (a with two dots above) is a separate
>> letter, not to be viewed as an alteration of the letter a. So it is
>> atomic. It is reasonable to enter it as a separate character. In
>> German, however it is an umlaut, alteration of the letter a.
>
>
> Not quite so: It has its own phonetic value (almost equal to its
> Swedish sibling, IIRC), and is taugh as seperate character in schools
> (believe me, I am German and interested in linguistic issues, and my
> wife is a teacher at an elementary school).
>
> The term "Umlaut" for a class of characters does not render these
> umlauts as non-characters. There is a similar term, "Ablaut", e. g.
> for the "a" and "o" in "barst" and "geborsten" (from "bersten") --
> yet, this does not qualify "a" and "o" as non-characters, alterations
> of "e".
>
> Admittedly, German "ä" collates with "a" in level 1, but so does "A"
> in Swedisch. Still, German "ä" and Swedisch "A" are characters,
> distinct from "a"; the difference is accounted for in higher
> collation levels.
>
> Admittedly, most crossword-puzzles treat "ä" as two letters "AE",
> but that does not qualify "ä" as a non-character, in any other
> respect. In the fifties, some crossword-puzzles used to treat "ch"
> as a unit; still, nobody would ever have thaught of calling "ch"
> a (single) letter.
>
> Best wishes,
> Otto Stolz
>
>
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