Consensus Call on Latin Sharp S and Greek Final Sigma
Michael Everson
everson at evertype.com
Mon Nov 30 13:40:40 CET 2009
On 30 Nov 2009, at 12:14, Alexander Mayrhofer wrote:
> Micheal Everson wrote:
>> German grammar is one thing. The use of the character in personal
>> names is another.
>
> Oh, wonderful. I'm already looking forward to cases where Mr.
> Fassbinder sues Mr. Faßbinder for the "ß"-domain, and in turn Mr.
> Faßbinder sues us because in a good percentage of his emails end up
> in Mr. Fassbinders mailbox, thanks to the flourishing variants of
> application mappings.
>
> What a lovely way to keep registry operators busy.
I didn't invent this stuff.
When you apply for a passport or Personalausweis in Germany, and you
have a name with a sharp s in it, on the form which asks you to fill
in the little boxes, they tell you to put a sharp s in one of the
boxes (not two esses in one box, or two esses in two different boxes).
Apparently Deutsche Post has a similar advice on one of their forms.
(Andreas Stötzner has details.)
Writing systems are the inventions of human beings. They are not tidy.
(Never mind Möller and Moeller and Mœller. I guess this is nothing new.)
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/
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