Editing Standard German (section)

==== Orthography Reform of 1996 ====
{{Main|German orthography reform of 1996}}

[[German spelling reform of 1996|The orthography reform of 1996]] was based on an international agreement signed by the governments of the [[German language|German]]-speaking countries [[Germany]], [[Austria]], [[Liechtenstein]] and [[Switzerland]]; but acceptance of the reform was limited and led to public controversy and considerable dispute. The states ({{lang|de|Bundesländer}}) of [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] and [[Bavaria]] refused to accept it. At one point, the dispute reached the highest court, which quickly dismissed it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule&nbsp;– everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it.

While, {{As of|2004|lc=on}}, most German print media followed the reform, some newspapers, such as {{lang|de|[[Die Zeit]]}}, ''{{lang|de|[[NZZ|Neue Zürcher Zeitung]]}}'' and ''{{lang|de|[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]}}'', created their own in-house orthographies.

After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major revision of the spelling reform was installed in 2006 because there were disagreements regarding [[capitalization]] and splitting of German words. Also revised were the rules governing punctuation marks.{{citation needed|date=September 2012}}

The most noticeable change was probably in the use of the letter ''ß'', called ''[[scharfes s]]'' (''Sharp S'') or {{lang|de|Eszett}} (pronounced ''ess-tsett'', coming from ſz). Traditionally, this letter was used in three situations:

# After a long vowel or vowel combination;
# Before a ''t'';
# At the end of a syllable.

Examples are {{lang|de|Füße}}, {{lang|de|paßt}}, and {{lang|de|daß}}. Currently, only the first rule is in effect, making the reformed spellings {{lang|de|Füße}}, {{lang|de|passt}}, and {{lang|de|dass}}. The word {{lang|de|Fuß}} 'foot' has the letter ''ß'' because it contains a long vowel, even though that letter occurs at the end of a syllable. The logic of this change is that an 'ß' is a single letter whereas 'ss' are two letters, so the same distinction applies as (for example) between the words {{lang|de|den}} and {{lang|de|denn}}.