Wikipedia:German-speaking Wikipedians' notice board/Umlaut and ß

This page is for collecting data on the use of Umlaut and ß in English language publications, with the hope of finally deciding how to treat the question at Wikipedia. There have been several dead-end discussions on the topic so far. This page is not for further dicussion, but to build up a collection of examples from outside sources, to see how ß and umlauts are used.

Please add quotes from style guides, books on language, dictionaries, printed books or newspapers etc. These should:

• describe how to deal with umlauts or ß in English texts

or

• show an example of ß/ss or the presence or lack of umlauts in English language texts written by native speakers of English, from reliable, well-written sources such as printed newspapers or books.

Please do not add any private opinions or arguments.

Style guides etc. supporting the use of the umlaut

Guardian style guide (UK)

"umlaut In German placenames, ae, oe and ue should almost always be rendered ä, ö, ü. Family names, however, for the most part became petrified many years ago and there is no way of working out whether the e form or the umlaut should be used; you just have to find out for each individual" [1] (ISBN 1843549913, 2004-07-14)

Times style guide (UK)

"accents - give French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian and Ancient Greek words their proper accents and diacritical marks; omit in other languages unless you are sure of them. Accents should be used in headlines and on capital letters. With Anglicised words, no need for accents in foreign words that have taken English nationality (hotel, depot, debacle, elite, regime etc), but keep the accent when it makes a crucial difference to pronunciation - café, communiqué, fête, fiancée, mêlée, émigré, pâté, protégé; also note vis-à-vis, façade" [2] (January 2003)

Economist style guide (UK)

"Put the accents and cedillas on French names and words, umlauts on German ones, accents and tildes on Spanish ones, and accents, cedillas and tildes on Portuguese ones: Françoise de Panafieu, Wolfgang Schäuble, Federico Peña. Leave the accents off other foreign names. Any foreign word in italics should, however, be given its proper accents." [3] (ISBN 1861979169, 2005-09-08)

European Commission Directorate-General for Translation English Style Guide (EU)

"Foreign words and phrases used in an English text should be italicised (no inverted commas) and should have the appropriate accents, e.g. inter alia, raison d’être. Exceptions: words and phrases now in common use and/or considered part of the English language, e.g. role, ad hoc, per capita, per se, etc. Personal names should retain their original accents, e.g. Grybauskaitė, Potočnik, Wallström. " [4] (PDF; 5th edition, revision, August 2006)

Style guides etc. against the use of the umlaut

BBC News style guide (UK)

"We do not include accents - either in accented words that have passed into the English language or in foreign names - eg: He had his breakfast in a cafe and The Brazilian football legend Pele scored twice." [5] (January 2016)

Examples of the use of the umlaut in texts

Oxford Children's Encyclopedia of Our World (UK)

• "Bavaria and Saxony are now two of the 16 Länder (federal states) around which..." (printed book, ISBN 0199107750, 2000-10-05)

Whitaker's Almanack 2001 (UK)

• "the five reformed Länder ..."
• "Gerhard Schröder" ... "Düsseldorf" (printed book, ISBN 0117022616, November 2000)

20th Century Germany, by Mary Fulbrook (UK)

• "the memoirs of Rudolf Höss" (printed book, ISBN 0340763310, 2001-05-04)

Cassell's Dictionary of Modern German History (UK)

• "Krüger, Friedrich Wilhelm ..."
• "Gürtner, Franz ..."
• "Gründerzeit (or: Gründerjahre), German term for the 'founding years' of the German Empire" ..."(printed book, ISBN 0304347728, May 2003)

  Note, however, that this is a German word, italicized, in English. This may be a special case; compare the Economist style guide above.

Examples of the avoidance of the umlaut in texts

Springer (DE)

• Springer: "economic and fiscal performance of the German Laender" [6] (March 2000)

Style guides etc. supporting the use of ß

Berghahn Books (UK)

"All diacriticals, especially the umlaut and ß, should be retained."

• House Style Sheet for U.K. Publications: A Guide for Authors and Editors (DOC). Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books. (2002-01-17, modification date of file)

Style guides etc. against the use of ß

Merriam-Webster's Manual for Writers and Editors (USA)

"in short textual extracts, such as the titles of a bibliography, it is acceptable and in fact normal for English-language editors to replace ß with ss." . [7] (ISBN 087779622X, 1998-01-01)

Examples of the use of ß in texts

The Guardian (UK)

"Germany's football federation, the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB) swiftly confirmed that the assistant trainer Joachim Löw would take over." From the article Exhausted Klinsmann steps down to spend more time with his family by Luke Harding, The Guardian, sport Thursday July 13 2006, page 5.

Collins world atlas (UK)

"Weißenburg in Bayern", square K5 on map on page 49, (also in index p227), Collins World Atlas Illustrated Edition, 2003.

Michelin Green Guide Germany (USA)

• "NB: The German letter ß (eszett) has been used throughout this guide", p9
• "Meißen's skyline is characterised by the Albrechtsburg." p345

  from the Michelin Green Guide Germany published 2002.

NB: In the 2005 version of this book, the ß is not used consistently: (p. 565: "Branitz (Schloss), Braunfels (Schloß)...") and "Meissen" is spelt both ways, e.g. (p.31) "Schloß Moritzburg and Meissen", "01662 Meissen" (p.358, under "Meißen")

The Rules of Association Football (UK)

"It is there in the surest test of all -- the language. A football: in Spanish, el futbol, o futebol in Portuguese, le football in French, der Fußball in German." p30 in the Introduction by Melvyn Bragg.

• Note that this is also the italicized citation of a foreign word, as are the other examples in this sentence.

Vienna Museum Guide (AT)

"The museum building "Domus Devomari" (opened in 1999), located at Unterlaa, Klederinger Straße, north east of St. John's Church, informs its visitors about the findings of archaeological research done in the area surrounding the church." [p. 24] (translated from German) Vienna Museum Guide. Pichler Verlag. 2000. ISBN 3-85085-177-2.

Examples of the avoidance of ß in texts

Times Online (UK)

• "Fans will be walking down the 2km road, Grosse Strasse" Dec 26 2005
• "the Romantische Strasse, or Romantic Road" March 05, 2005
• "Beethoven’s piano version of his Grosse Fuge" March 01, 2006

Guardian Online (UK)

• "the town of Weisswasser, in Saxony. The wolves swam across the river Neisse from Poland. " September 15, 2005
• "'Grosse Katastrophe, grosse Katastrophe,' an old man repeated" April 13, 1999
• "a couple crossed the Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint in West Berlin " November 10, 1989

Britannica Online (USA)

may require registration

"The better-known Nysa Luzycka, or Lusatian Neisse, is the longer (157 miles [252 km]) and more westerly;.." [8]

• also article name.

"the Rangau, an intensive hop-growing district centred between the towns of Schwabach and Weissenburg." [9]

• article Mittelfranken; notes Middle Franconia as English name

"original fugal finale (Grosse Fuge)" [10]

• article Beethoven.

Lonely Planet guide books (USA)

• Lonely Planet: Berlin, throughout the 2005 edition, avoids use of the ß character, and replaces it with "ss". Example: Vossstrasse. --Elonka 04:36, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Cassell's Dictionary of Modern German History (UK)

• "Voss, Johann Heinrich ... Vossische Zeitung"
• "Grossraumwirtschaft, a term used to refer to ..."(printed book: [11])

20th Century Germany, by Mary Fulbrook (UK)

• "the memoirs of Rudolf Höss" (printed book, [12])

The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (UK)

(printed book, part of the Oxford Manual of Style, 2003)

• Strauss, Johann I

The Last Days of Hitler (USA)

(printed book by Hugh Trevor-Roper [13])

• "the tunnel in the Vossstrasse" (p229) [14]

Europe Transformed: 1878-1919 (Blackwell Classic Histories of Europe), (USA)

(printed book by Norman Stone, [15]

• In Berlin-Vossstrasse, the top third of ... (p120) [16]