From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Fri May 04 2007 - 16:37:25 CST
On 5/4/2007 2:33 PM, John Hudson wrote:
> When I say that I think the uppercase eszett is a glyph variant of SS
> I am not talking at all about its appearance, but about what it
> represents in text. I believe it represents the uppercase of ß, and
> the uppercase of ß *is* SS; ergo, the uppercase eszett represents SS.
The use of "SS" as an uppercase for ß is itself a 'hack'. (Or more
politely a 'fallback'). Yes, this sounds strange because it is after all
part of an official orthography, but its understandable if you consider
the history of German orthography (well, not in detail, but some
important aspects).
Consider first, that until about 100 years ago, most printed material in
German was in Fraktur. In that style, ALL UPPERCASE text is essentially
not readable, and therefore, if employed at all, it's a true rarity.
However, the ß does exist in Fraktur, and is probably based on writing
practices common to Fraktur and handwritten styles of the time, where it
represents 'ss' and not 'sz'.
Note that unlike other languages, in German, the ß ceases to be merely a
ligature, but is used to mark specific pronunciation - the fact that the
very recent reformed orthography re-distributed the role between ss and
ß merely underscores the fact that one is not a presentation variant of
the other, but each is employed for specific orthographic purposes.
With typewriters and transition to Antiqua, the question of ALL
UPPERCASE text presents itself. In that context, the lack of a
letterform for ß other than lower case, is keenly felt. The standard
orthography opts for the hack while simultaneously, others are searching
for an uppercase representation.
With increasing use of ALL UPPERCASE text, users continue to be bothered
by the need to give up orthographic distinctions when using standard
orthography. Therefore, the documented *ongoing* use of ß in ALL
UPPERCASE context. The use of uppercase ß is intended as a glyph variant
not of SS but of ß when used in ALL UPPERCASE text (where its standard
glyph does not fit well, having a descender, etc.)
ß is not ss and uppercase ß is not SS.
(but standard orthography decrees that the UppercaseOf(ß) is to be "SS"
- that's the crux of the issue and the reason for the continued minority
opinion and practice(!) on this issue).
Searching for glyph variants of "SS" is not helpful, as it would
obliterate a (searchable) text distinction desired by the users, and
searching for ways to treat this as glyph variant of ß is not helpful,
because Unicode decided long ago not to treat upper and lower case as
glyph variants.
I continue to conclude that this proposal should be approved as presented.
A./
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