11 votes
Accepted

How did the y get lost in German writing?

The reason y was lost is standardisation. For instance, Ebert/Reichmann/Solms/Wegera, Frühneuhochdeutsche Grammatik, list the following variants under the heading ei / ai (§ L 27): <ei, ey, eÿ, ...
David Vogt's user avatar
  • 26.4k
7 votes

How did the y get lost in German writing?

The "y" in German can basically represent three sounds: "ü" in Greek loanwords, like in Analyse the vowel sound "i" in loanwords from English, like in Hobby at the start ...
tofro's user avatar
  • 64.6k
6 votes

How did the y get lost in German writing?

You have to ask what the reason for ey was originally. For that, have a look at German cursive, the Kurrent script. The small e looks like small n already, small i looks almost like small c but the ...
Janka's user avatar
  • 59.9k
6 votes

Why is the Sk digraph in "Skizzieren" [sk] pronounced different from the Sk in "Ski" [sh]?

You are right about the origins of the words: schizzo (pronounced "skitso") is an italian word and means "splash" or "splodge". The German "Skizze" just mimics ...
bakunin's user avatar
  • 8,139
4 votes

Why did the letter X fall out of most Scandinavian languages, Dutch but not German or Icelandic?

It is never easy to answer a question about why something did not happen, but here is my take on it: Obviously nobody (at least nobody with enough influence to initiate a spelling reform) saw a ...
RHa's user avatar
  • 15.8k
3 votes
Accepted

unter den Untengeschriebenen/unten Geschriebenen

Composites in German are as ubiquitous as they are complicated, because they don't follow a coherent pattern. Sometimes the meaning of a phrase even changes its meaning, depending on being written ...
bakunin's user avatar
  • 8,139
2 votes
Accepted

Kann jemand erklären, wann "ss" und "ß" zu benutzen sind?

Die Regel in der neuen Rechtschreibung ist, dass man die Frage, ob man ss oder ß schreibt, nach der Standard-Aussprache des Vokals davor entscheiden kann. Nach "kurzen" Vokalen steht ss, ...
HalvarF's user avatar
  • 26.9k
2 votes

Rhein background image

It is "Rheinhintergrundbild". There is is no "ü" here. The arc over the "u" was used to distinguish it from an "n". This was common practice, look at all other ...
Paul Frost's user avatar
  • 10.6k
2 votes

Schreibweise "Glück(s)schmerz"

Da es sich bei Glück(s)schmerz um einen Okkasionalismus handelt, ist die Bildung nicht festgelegt und keine der beiden Varianten kann als normativ falsch bezeichnet werden. Meines Erachtens gibt es ...
David Vogt's user avatar
  • 26.4k
2 votes
Accepted

Rhein background image

The letter is written in latin kursive, but the handwriting has some letters and peculiarities that come from German Kurrent or Sütterlin, like the arc over every letter u. These are not Umlauts (ü) ...
HalvarF's user avatar
  • 26.9k
2 votes

Why is the Sk digraph in "Skizzieren" [sk] pronounced different from the Sk in "Ski" [sh]?

Everything has been correctly said about why Ski is pronounced with a sh (English) or sch (German) sound while skizzieren is pronounced /sk/. This leaves the question on the spelling of the word (Ski ...
Jan's user avatar
  • 38.6k
2 votes

-dorf versus -dorff as name ending

Your idea that the spelling is intentionally wrong is misled. Names and their spelling usually exist much longer than orthography. As they are treated as names and not as words, their spelling does ...
Jonathan Scholbach's user avatar
1 vote

Orthographische Konsistenz in Anglizismen

Das »Prinzip« ist es, möglichst bekannten Mustern zu entsprechen, das heißt, sobald es einen deutschen Teil – das ist die Flexion – gibt, muss er zur deutschen Orthographie passen. Formen wie liket ...
Dodezv's user avatar
  • 2,618
1 vote

vor allem vs. vor Allem

Vor allem is always written with a small 'a' as it is a fixed phrase meaning 'hauptsächlich, besonders, extra'. Duden lists is as notoriously difficult to write.
Jens's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote

Why is the Sk digraph in "Skizzieren" [sk] pronounced different from the Sk in "Ski" [sh]?

You found the answer yourself. In German we often retain both the original spelling and the original pronounciation of loanwords. Over time the spelling is changed to reflect the pronounciation with ...
Janka's user avatar
  • 59.9k
1 vote

Rhein background image

It is not an ü but an u, the squiggle is not an umlaut, but a way to distinguish u and n which may look the same in handwriting. There is a different umlaut mark in the text, compare with ähnlich ...
Bodo's user avatar
  • 1,592
1 vote

Schreibweise "Glück(s)schmerz"

Wenn ich mit dem Ngram-viewer von Google von 1800 bis 2019 nach den beiden deutschsprachigen Begriffen "Glückschmerz, Glücksschmerz" suche, werden mir nur Ergebnisse für "Glücksschmerz&...
Hubert Schölnast's user avatar
1 vote

Kennzeichnung aspirierter Plosive (z.b. TH in Theater, Thron usw.)

Im Deutschen werden p, t und k generell am Wortende und vor Vokal aspiriert. Am Wortende entfällt die Aspiration manchmal durch die Verbindung mit einem nachfolgendem Wort - Bei "er ist krank ...
Luis's user avatar
  • 11

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