It has long been considered the most troublesome character in the German alphabet. But champions of the Eszett, which resembles a bloated B with a hole, were celebrating its red-letter day after receiving official status following a century-long struggle for recognition.
The Eszett, or ß, which is unique to the German alphabet and is pronounced like the letter S, has been officially accepted as a lower- and upper-case alphabet figure by the International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO), which has granted it status in its club of ”special consonants found in Western European languages”.
The ruling comes as something of a blow to German spelling reformists who had been keen to scrap the Eszett from the alphabet altogether, arguing that because it was the size of a capital letter it was quite literally a waste of space. Its use has already waned over the past decade following a ruling by a government-backed commission of educational experts who deemed it should be replaced by the letters ”ss” in many cases. Since then, officially the Eszett could only be used after long vowels and dipthongs. The issue has been thoroughly confusing for a generation of schoolchildren, their teachers and parents.
In practical terms the ISO ruling now means that in future it should be easier to find the Eszett on computer keyboards and in programmes. But it remains to be seen how keyboard manufacturers will react. Other vulnerable European letters have come under threat in the internet era, such as the Scandinavian vowels æ, ø and å. However, official recognition for the Eszett should mean that it is protected, at least for the time being, and cannot be scrapped as it has been in Swiss German.
Kerstin Güthert, managing director of the Council for German Spelling Reform, said: ”It’s up to the people to decide whether or not they will use it.”
Germany’s typographers, at least, are predicting its comeback and celebrating the Eszett’s new-found status.
The entire recent edition of Signa, the journal of German signographers, was dedicated to the Eszett, which was presented in grand style in all its varied forms and fonts along with the argument that it is about time the letter was seen as ”more than just a pumped-up B”. – guardian.co.uk