Capital ß [was Re: Case-insensitive string equality]

[Steve D'Aprano]

On Sat, 2 Sep 2017 01:48 pm, Stefan Ram wrote:

> Steve D'Aprano <steve+python at pearwood.info> writes:
>>[1] I believe that the German government has now officially recognised the
>>uppercase form of ß.
> 
>   [skip to the last paragraph for some "ß" content,
>   unless you want to read details about German spelling rules.]
> 
>   The German language is as free as the English one. It does
>   not come from a government.

Nevertheless, even in English there are de facto rules about what you can and
cannot use as text for official purposes. In most countries, you cannot change
your name to an unpronounceable "love symbol" as the late Artist Formally Known
As Prince did. You can't fill in your tax using Alienese

http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Alienese

or even Vietnamese, Greek or Arabic.

In Australia, the Victorian state government Department of Births Deaths and
Marriages doesn't even accept such unexceptional and minor variants as Zöe for
Zoe. Of course you are free to call yourself Zöe when you sign your emails, but
your birth certificate, passport and drivers licence will show it as Zoe.


>   The 16 states (Bundesländer), agreed to a common institution
>   ("Der Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung") to write down the
>   rules for their /schools/. The federal government is not
>   involved. Most publishing houses volunteered to follow those
>   school rules. Outside of schools or binding contracts,
>   everyone is free to write as he likes.

I'm not suggesting that the Spelling Police will come arrest me in either
Germany or the UK/Australia if I were to write my name Ƽτευεη. Switzerland on
the other hand ... *wink*

But there are very strong conventions about what is acceptable, and often there
are actual laws in place that limit what letters are used in official
documentation and records, what is taught in schools, etc. 

The 1996 spelling reforms, and their legal status, are described here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_orthography_reform_of_1996

and Der Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_German_Orthography

(Sorry for not linking to the German versions as well.)


>   The "ß" sometimes has been uppercased to "SS" and sometimes
>   to "SZ". 

Historically, some German publishers used a distinct uppercase ß, while others
used a ligature of SZ, explicitly stating that this was an interim measure
until they decided on a good looking uppercase ß.

More about capital ß:

https://typography.guru/journal/germanys-new-character/

https://medium.com/@typefacts/the-german-capital-letter-eszett-e0936c1388f8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_%E1%BA%9E



-- 
Steve
“Cheer up,” they said, “things could be worse.” So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse.