Editing Standard German (section)

== Orthography ==
{{main|German orthography}}

=== Features ===

Standard High German is written in the [[Latin alphabet]]. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with an [[Diaeresis (diacritic)#Umlaut|umlaut mark]], namely ''ä'', ''ö'' and ''ü'', as well as the {{lang|de|Eszett}} or {{lang|de|[[scharfes s]]}} (sharp s): ''[[ß]]''. In Switzerland and Liechtenstein, ''ss'' is used instead of ''ß''.

=== History ===

A first step to standardisation, although non-prescriptive, of [[Early New High German]] was introduced by the [[Luther Bible]] of 1534. In consequence, the written language of the chancery of [[Saxony-Wittenberg]] rose in importance in the course of the 17th century so much so that it was used in texts such as the 1665 revision of the [[Zürich Bible]].

The First Orthographical Conference convened in 1876 by order of the government of [[Prussia]], but failed. [[Konrad Duden]] published the first edition of his dictionary, later simply known as the ''[[Duden]]'', in 1880. The first spelling codification by the [[German Orthographic Conference of 1901|Second Orthographic Conference of 1901]], based on Duden's work, came into effect in 1902.

In 1944 there was a failed attempt at another reform; this was delayed on the order of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and not taken up again after the end of [[World War II]].

In the following decades German spelling was essentially decided ''de facto'' by the editors of the Duden dictionaries. After the war, this tradition was followed with two different centers: [[Mannheim]] in [[West Germany]] and [[Leipzig]] in [[East Germany]]. By the early 1950s, a few other publishing houses had begun to attack the Duden monopoly in the West by publishing their own dictionaries, which did not always conform to the "official" spellings prescribed by Duden. In response, the Ministers of Culture of the federal states in West Germany officially declared the Duden spellings to be binding as of November 1955 ("Duden-Monopol" or "Dudenmonopol", "Duden-Privileg" or "Dudenprivileg"). {{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}<ref>Theodor Ickler:
* ''Rechtschreibreform in der Sackgasse: Neue Dokumente und Kommentare.'' 2004, p. 79f. (having „Dudenprivileg“)
* ''Der Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung in Dokumenten und Kommentaren.'' Frank & Timme GmbH, Berlin, p. 78f., quoting [[Karin Wolff]] from 2004 (having „Dudenmonopol“)
</ref>

==== 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}}.