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Greek letter (beta).
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Letter in various typefaces

In the German alphabet, the letter , called "Eszett" (IPA: [stst]) or "scharfes S", in English
"sharp S", is a consonantthat evolved as a ligature of "long s and z" (z) and "long s over round s"
(s). It is pronounced [s] (see IPA). Since theGerman orthography reform of 1996, it is used only
after long vowels and diphthongs while ss is written after short vowels. The name eszett comes
from the two letters S and Z as they are pronounced in German.[1] In German, it is also
called scharfes S (IPA: [a .fs s, a.fs s], meaning "sharp S". Its Unicode encoding is
U+00DF.
While the letter "" has been used in other languages, it is now only used in German. However, it
is not used inSwitzerland, Liechtenstein or Namibia.[2] German speakers
in Germany, Austria, Belgium,[3] Denmark,[4]Luxembourg[5] and South Tyrol, Italy[6] follow the
standard rules for .
Contents
[hide]

1 History
o

1.1 Roman typeface

1.2 Adelung's and Heyse's rules

2 Alternative representations in Antiqua

3 Usage in the reformed orthography of 1996

3.1 Usage in the traditional orthography

3.2 Substitution and all caps

3.3 Switzerland and Liechtenstein

3.4 Upper case

4 Graphically similar letters

o

4.1 Lowercase beta

4.2 Uppercase B

5 Keyboards

6 Other languages

7 Miscellaneous

8 See also

9 References

10 External links

History[edit]
The earliest occurrence of is in the "Wolfdietrich fragment", which was written around 1300 AD.
In blackletter texts it was used as a ligature of "long s and small z" (z), more precisely tailed z. In
some of the fonts emerging in the fifteenth century, it was a ligature of "long s and round s" (s).
By the time Antiqua for German texts began to be applied, the development of the language and
use of "" had changed again (seeAntiquaFraktur dispute). There remains no clear clarification
of the origin of the letter "".

Roman typeface[edit]

Essen with s-ligature reads Een(Latin Blaeu Atlas, set in Antiqua, 1650s)

The combination of long s and s is also seen in Early Modern English(example from the US Bill of Rights)

In the late 18th and early 19th century, when more and more German texts were printed
in Roman type, typesetters looked for a Roman counterpart for the blackletter z ligature, which
did not exist in Roman fonts. Printers experimented with various techniques, mostly replacing
blackletter in Roman type with either sz, ss, s, or some combination of these. Although there
are early examples in Roman type of a s-ligature that looks like the letter , it was not commonly
used as Eszett.[citation needed]
It was only with the First Orthographic Conference in Berlin in 1876 that printers and type
foundries started to look for a common letter form to represent the Eszett in Roman type. In 1879,
a proposal for various letter forms was published in the Journal fr Buchdruckerkunst. A
committee of the Typographic Society of Leipzig chose the so-called Sulzbacher Form. In 1903 it
was proclaimed as the new standard for the Eszett in Roman type.[7]
Since then, German printing set in Roman type has used the letter . The Sulzbacher Form,
however, did not find unanimous acceptance. It became the default form, but many type
designers preferred (and still prefer) other forms. Some resemble a blackletter sz-ligature, others
more a Roman s-ligature.
To the reader unfamiliar with German, the 's "s" origin may be obscure or nearly undetectable,
particularly in the Sulzbacher Form. Long s itself was frequently confused with "f," which led to its
demise in English writing around 1800. Unlike German, per se has apparently never been used
in English. Rather, various other forms are seen for ss in pre-modern literature and handwriting. A
double long-s [] is seen in places such as scans of the original Geneva Bible of 1560. Scans of
British census sheets of the 19th century may show a simple unligatured long-s short-s or
something that looks to the modern eye as a long-ascendered p. Where the latter case is seen,
the pre-modern English handwritten p differs from its s generally both by the p's shorter ascender
as well as the p's bowl being drawn with a space left at the bottom versus the s of the s being
drawn in more completely at the bottom.

Adelung's and Heyse's rules[edit]

Johann Christoph Adelung (17321806) and Johann Christian August Heyse (17641829) were
two German lexicographers who tried to establish consistent rules on the application of the letter
s.
In Austria Heyse's rule of 1829 prevailed from 1879 until the second orthographic conference of
1901, where it was decided to prefer Adelung's rule over Heyse's. The German orthography
reform of 1996 reintroduced Heyse's variant, yet without the long s.[8]
Rules of Adelung and Heyse

Fraktur according to
Adelung

Waerschlo

Flo

Patrae

Mata
b

Grasoden Hauseel

Fraktur according to Heyse Waerschlos

Flo

Pastrae

Mata
b

Grasoden Hauseel

Antiqua in the 20th century

Wasserschlo
(Adelung)

Flo

Pastrae

Mastab

Grassode
n

Hausesel

Antiqua in the 21st century

(Heyse)

Wasserschlos
s

Flo

Passstrae,
Grassode
PassMastab
n
Strae

Hausesel

Translation

moated castle

raft

pass road

scale

(grass)
sod

domestic
donkey

In order to display its elements correctly, the ligatures of the Fraktur typesetting are not shown.
Therefore, the modern Antiqua- was used for the Latin orthography since the 20th century.
Heyse's argument: Given that "ss" may appear at the end of a word, before a fugue and "s" being
a common initial letter for words, "sss" is likely to appear in a large number of cases (the amount
of these cases is even higher than all the possible triple consonant cases (e.g. "Dampfschifffahrt")
together).[9] Critics point out that a triple "s" in words like "Missstand" feature less readability than
spelling it "Mistand". Even though the second word of a compound does not start with "s", ""
should be used to improve the readability of the fugue (e.g. "Meergebnis" over "Messergebnis"
(measurement), which suggests the unrelated word "Messer" (knife), and "Meingenieur" over
"Messingenieur" (measuring engineer), which suggests the unrelated word "Messing" (brass)). [10]
This problem of Adelung's rule was solved by Heyse who distinguished between the long s ("")
and the round s ("s"). Only the round s could finish a word, therefore also called terminal
s (Schlu-s resp. Schluss-s). The round s also indicates the fugue in compounds. Instead of
"Missstand" and "Messergebnis" one wrote "Mistand" and "Mesergebnis". Back then a special
ligature for Heyse's rule was introduced: s. Amongst the common ligatures of "ff", "ft", "" and "t",
"s" and "" were two different characters in the Fraktur typesetting if applying Heyse's rule.

Alternative representations in Antiqua[edit]

Different forms of antiqua

There have been four typographical forms of the Antiqua . Currently, most Antiqua are shaped
according to the second or the fourth form. The first and third form are seldom found.
1. letter combination s (not as a ligature, but as a single type)
2. ligature of and s

3. ligature of and a kind of blackletter z that looks similar to an

"" (ezh) or a "3", though it might rather be described as a "Z
with a hook" () (this form resembles the original blackletter
ligature)
4. The Sulzbacher Form

Three contemporary handwritten forms of demonstrated on the word a, "(I/he/she/it) ate"

Usage in the reformed orthography of 1996[edit]

In the orthography of the German spelling reform of 1996, both and ss are used to represent /s/
between two vowels as follows:
1. is used after diphthongs (beien [basnn ] to bite)
2. is used after long vowels (gren [ysnn ] to greet)
3. ss is used after short vowels (kssen [ksnn ] to kiss)
Thus it helps to distinguish words like Bue (long vowel) 'penance, fine' and Busse (short vowel)
'buses'. It is also consistent with the general rule of German spelling that a doubled consonant
letter serves to mark the preceding vowel as short (the consonant sound is never actually
doubled or lengthened in pronunciation).
In words where the stem changes, some forms may have an but others an ss, for instance sie
beien (they bite) vs. sie bissen (they bit).
The same rules apply at the end of a word or syllable, but are complicated by the fact that
single s is also pronounced /s/ in those positions. Thus, words like gro ('large') require , while
others, like Gras ('grass') use a single s. The correct spelling is not predictable out of context (in
Standard German pronunciation), but is usually made clear by related forms, e.g., Gre ('size')
and grasen ('to graze'), where the medial consonants are pronounced /s/ and /z/ respectively.
Many dialects of German however have an even longer vowel, or an audibly less sharp s, in
cases single s is used.

Usage in the traditional orthography[edit]

In the traditional orthography, is always used at the end of a word or word-component, or before
a consonant, even when the preceding vowel is short. For example, Fu ('foot') has a long vowel,
pronounced /fus/, and so was unaffected by the spelling reform; but Ku ('kiss') has a short
vowel, pronounced /ks/, and was reformed to Kuss. Other traditional examples
included Eunlust ('loss of appetite'), and wrig('watery'), but Wasser ('water').
The spelling reform affected some German-language forms of foreign place names, such
as Ruland ("Russia"), reformed Russland, andPreburg ("Bratislava"), reformed Pressburg.
[11]
The orthography of personal names (first names and family names) and of names for locations
within Germany proper, Austria and Switzerland were not affected by the reform of 1996,
however; these names often use irregular spellings that are otherwise impermissible under
German spelling rules, not only in the matter of the but also in many other respects.
The traditional orthography encouraged the use of SZ in place of in words with all letters
capitalized where a usual SS would produce an ambiguous result. One possible ambiguity was
between IN MASZEN (in limited amounts; Ma, "measure") and IN MASSEN (in massive
amounts; Masse, "mass"). Such cases were rare enough that this rule was officially abandoned in

the reformed orthography. The German military still occasionally uses the capitalized SZ, even
without any possible ambiguity, as SCHIESZGERT (shooting materials). Architectural
drawings may also use SZ in capitalizations because capital letters and both Ma and Masse are
frequently used. Military teleprinter operation within Germany still uses sz for (unlike German
typewriters, German teleprinter machines never featured either umlauts or the letter).

Substitution and all caps[edit]

Further information: Capital
If no is available, ss or sz is used instead (sz especially in Hungarian-influenced eastern
Austria). This applies especially to all caps or small caps texts because does not have a
generally accepted majuscule form. Excepted are all-caps names in legal documents; they may
retain an to prevent ambiguity (for instance: STRAER, since Straer and Strasser are both
possible names).
This ss that replaces an has to be hyphenated as a single letter in the traditional orthography.
For instance STRA-SSE (street); compareStra-e. In the reform orthography, it is hyphenated
like other double consonants: STRAS-SE.[12]

Switzerland and Liechtenstein[edit]

In Switzerland, ss usually replaces every . This is officially sanctioned by the reformed German
orthography rules, which state in 25 E2: In der Schweiz kann man immer ss schreiben ("In
Switzerland, one can always write 'ss'"). Liechtenstein follows the same practice.
In Switzerland, has been gradually abolished since the 1930s, when most cantons decided not
to teach it any more and the Swiss postal service stopped using it in place names. The Neue
Zrcher Zeitung was the last Swiss newspaper to give up , in 1974. Today, Swiss publishing
houses use only for books that address the entire German-speaking market.

Upper case[edit]
Main article: Capital

Upper case on a book cover from 1957

is nearly unique among the letters of Latin alphabet in that it has no traditional upper case form.
It never occurs initially; no native German word starts with a sound pronounced [s], and
loanwords that do start with that sound retain their original spelling, usually starting with an "s".
However, there have been repeated attempts to introduce an upper case . Such letterforms can
be found in some older German books and some modern signage and product design. Since 4
April 2008, Unicode 5.1.0 has included it as U+1E9E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SHARP S.[13]

Graphically similar letters[edit]

Lowercase beta[edit]
"" should not be confused with the unrelated lower-case Greek letter "" (beta), a homoglyph,
which the so-called Sulzbacher form closely resembles, particularly to the eyes of non-German or
non-Greek readers. Any typeset material should use the .
The differences between "" and "" in most typefaces are:

reaches below the line while does not (except in some italic
versions and in German handwriting, with the written very

similarly to , reaching below the line with the bottom loop

connected to the vertical line).

connects the vertical part on the left with the end of the
horizontal near the bottom; does not.

is often slightly slanted to the right even in upright fonts, while

is exactly vertical.

However, the reverse substitution of using German "" as a surrogate for Greek "" once was
common when describing beta test versions of application programs for older operating systems,
whose character encodings, most notably Latin-1 and Windows-1252, did not support easy use of
Greek letters. Also, the original IBM DOS code page, CP437 (aka OEM-US) conflates the two
characters, assigning them the same codepoint (0xE1) and a glyph that minimizes their
differences.

Uppercase B[edit]
Non-German speakers unfamiliar with German orthography may also confuse with B (the Latin
letter which is derived from the Greek beta), which is also incorrect. This effect is used for comic
value in the film National Lampoon's European Vacation, where Clark Griswold reads a sign for
Dippelstrae as Dippelstrabe.

Keyboards[edit]

The key (and , , ) on a 1964 German typewriter

The character (and others including ) accessible usingAltGr+s on a modern US-International keyboard

In Germany and Austria, the letter is present on computer and typewriter keyboards, normally
to the right on the upper row. In other countries, the letter is not marked on the keyboard, but a
combination of other keys can produce it. Often, the letter is input using a modifier and the s key.
The details of the keyboard layout depend on the input language and operating system.
OS X
Option+s on US, US-Extended, and UK keyboards

Microsoft Windows
Alt+0223 or Alt+225 or Ctrl+s or (if not used
otherwise) Ctrl+Alt+s, on some keyboards such as USInternational also AltGr+s
X-based systems
AltGr+s or Compose, s, s
GNU Emacs
C-x 8 " s
GNOME
AltGr+s or Ctrl-Shift-DF or (in GNOME versions 2.15 and
later) Ctrl-Shift-U, df
AmigaOS
Alt+S for all keymaps on native Amiga keyboards.
Plan 9
Alt or Compose, s, s.
RISC OS
Alt+s or AltGr+s
Android
Alt+s
The Vim and GNU
Screen digraph is ss.

Other languages[edit]
'' is used by some
in romanizing the Sumerian
language, to mean 'sh'. Some
Sumerian scholars use 'sz' or
'$' instead.
It was also in use for Latin
during the Medieval and
Renaissance time, until the
18th century. E.g.: clariimus clarissimus - the brightest; ee
- esse - to be; amaviet amavisset and so on.
'' was used to mean ''
(cognate to Polish sz) in a
German-influenced spelling
system for the Lithuanian
language which was used
in Lithuania Minor in East
Prussia: the page
section Prussian
Lithuanians#Personal
names has some examples of
Prussian
Lithuanian surnames containing
''.

Miscellaneous[edit]

A one-way sign, displaying one

form of

A street sign
in Berlin displaying another
form of

A street sign
in Erfurt displaying a different
form of

A street sign
in Nrnberg displaying yet
another form of

In alphabetizing German words,

is treated as double "s".
Thus, Ru comes
before Russe, which comes

before ruen, which comes

before Russland.
is sometimes used in German
writing to indicate a
pronunciation
of /s/ where /z/ would otherwise
be usual (in standard German,
initial s before a vowel is
pronounced /z/). The
novels NeuLand andOstWind b
y Luise Endlich, for example,
use an initial to approximate
the local dialect in Frankfurt
(Oder); thus ind ie? ("Sind
Sie?").
The HTML entity for
is ß . Its codepoint in
the ISO 8859 character
encoding
versions 1, 2, 3,4, 9, 10, 13, 14,
15, 16 and identically
in Unicode is 223, or DF
in hexadecimal.
In TeX and LaTeX, \ss produce
s . A German language
support package for LaTeX
exists in which is produced by
"s (similar to umlauts, which are
produced by "a, "o, and "u with
this package).
Also, (as well as , , ) is
widely not considered part of
the standard alphabet. If asked
how many letters in the
alphabet, most Germans would
answer 26 instead of 30.
Sometimes even 29 may be
heard if it is forgotten that the
dots of are an old e placed
over the vowel, but is still
remembered as a ligation of sz
or ss.
In modern browsers, "" will be
converted to "SS" when the
element containing it is set to
uppercase using texttransform:
uppercase in Cascading Style
Sheets.
The JavaScript in Google
Chrome will convert "" to "SS"
when converted to uppercase
(e.g. "".toUpperCase() ).

See also[edit]

Capital

Greek letter (Beta)

Long s

Sz (digraph)

de:Heysesche sSchreibung (German)

de:Adelungsche sSchreibung (German)

References[edit]
1.

Jump up^ In Hungarian,

whose orthography has
been influenced by
German, the digraph sz is
likewise used for [s].

2.

Jump up^ Leitfaden zur

deutschen
Rechtschreibung
(English: Guide to
German Orthography),
3rd edition
2007(German) from the
Swiss Federal
Chancellery, retrieved 22Apr-2012

3.

Jump
up^ Deutschsprachige
Gemeinschaft in Belgien:
Zustndigkeiten (German)
retrieved 22-Apr-2012

4.

Jump up^ Website of the

German-language Danish
newspaper Der
Nordschleswiger (Germa
n) retrieved 22-Apr-2012

5.

Jump up^ Mady

Delvaux-Stehres: Commu
niqu Reorganization of
the German orthography
in the Luxembourgian
educational system 3.
August 2005
(Luxembourg Ministry of

Education) (German) retri

eved 22-Apr-2012
6.

Jump up^ Example of

South Tyrol usage in a
newsletter: Landmaus Nr
12 (German) retrieved 22Apr-2012

7.

Jump up^ Zeitschrift fr

Deutschlands
Buchdrucker,
Steindrucker und
verwandte Gewerbe.
Leipzig, 9. Juli 1903. Nr.
27, XV. Jahrgang.
Faksimile in: Mark
Jamra:The Eszett (no
date) http://www.typecultu
re.com/academic_resourc
e/articles_essays/ (check
ed 17 April 2008)

8.

Jump up^ Busch,

Wolf. "Heysesche sSchreibung in
Frakturschrift" (in
German). Retrieved 1
January 2012.

9.

Jump up^ Ickler,

Theodor. "LautBuchstabenZuordnungen". Mein
Rechtschreibtagebuch (in
German).
Forschungsgruppe
Deutsche Sprache.
Retrieved1 January 2012.

10. Jump up^ Theodor,

Ickler (1997). "Die
sogenannte
Rechtschreibreform Ein
Schildbrgerstreich" (PDF)
(in German). St. Goar:
Leibnitz-Verlag.
p. 14. ISBN 3-931155-099. Retrieved 1
January 2012.
11. Jump up^ (in
German) Wortschatz, Uni
Leipzig, Searches
for 'Ruland' and 'Prebu
rg'. Accessed March 20,
2008
12. Jump up^ Peter
Gallmann (1997): "Warum
die Schweizer weiterhin

kein Eszett schreiben.

Zugleich: Eine
Anmerkung zu
Eisenbergs SilbengelenkTheorie". In: Augst,
Gerhard; Blml, Karl;
Nerius, Dieter; Sitta, Horst
(Eds.) Die Neuregelung
der deutschen
Rechtschreibung.
Begrndung und
Kritik. Tbingen:
Niemeyer (= Reihe
Germanistische
Linguistik, Vol. 179)
pages 135140.[1], p. 5.
13. Jump up^ Unicode 5.1.0

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to .

James Mosley: Eszett or

- January 31, 2008 on
typefoundry.blogspot.com

Mark Jamra: The Eszett

[hide]

The ISO basic Lat

Aa

Bb

Cc

Dd

Ee

Ff

Gg

Hh

Ii

Jj

Kk

Ll

List o

Num

Palae

Punc

Latin alphabet ligatures

Hi

ISO/I

Dia

Deri

Categories:
German language

Mm

Un

Uncommon Latin letters

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