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Why are people using the "þ" character?
(lemmy.zip)
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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2025
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i mean, i get why people are annoyed by it, but personally i found that the thorn didn't really impede my ability to read that guy's posts. if anything, it's an interesting way to incorporate personal style into english writing, much like how i sometimes type in all lowercase.
ßesides, it's fun tø fuck around å little bît.
Ok. It's time for unsolicited German facts.
The ß or "eszett" (also known as "scharfes s" or "sharp s") is actually the combination of the old long s (ſ) and a regular s.
ſ + s = ſs = ß (can also be formed with
Isn't that neat? It's also worth noting that no words start with ß, and it is lower-case only. If you need to write a word with an ß in all caps, replace it with a double s.
Straße -> STRASSE
Edit: not all of this is accurate, apparently. See comments below.
In this era full of bad German shit, I publicly thank you for your cool German facts.
More unsolicited German facts:
ẞ, that is the upper-case version, does indeed exist and has been official since 2017.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%9Fes_%C3%9F
That being said, it's pretty uncommon, and mostly only typography nerd use it, but I just couldn't let that slide.
I just found this out. Idk how I feel about this.
In German it usually goes back to a combo of ſ + z, aka "ess-zett". While both explanations are valid, you cannot reduce it to only one.
What the fuck. I hate math.
/s
I meant the character itself (the way it is drawn) is a combination of long s and regular s. But, you're right.
Also, the Wikipedia page says a capital ß is actually occasionally used. You learn something every day, I guess.
Capital ß was introduced rather recently
But the second part of the ß is a z. It's a z written in cursive.
It seems it has been done both ways? (Which is news to me.) Source is screenshot of Wikipedia btw.
I love that this is like that evolution of man painting, but showing how script evolved over the years.
Its actually a ligature with tailed z: ſʒ
Niiiiice thank you so much for pointing this out.
yay, i'm learning german! i had to long press the s key to get that ß.
it's funnier to use it as a B.
Fß
Cool, thanks for the detail!
STRAẞE
Kiss my schloß
sure, but you have to think about accessibility (like screen readers)
the iOS screen reader just read your last line as "sesides, it’s fun toe fuck around a ring little bit"
Eh, fait accompli. Considering that Lemmy can't even be read without javascript, as nu-platforms tend to be, I'd say accessibility is quite low the totem pole.
It's not like screen readers on Lemmy arent already transmitting untold horror as is.
As someone who uses the æøå in their native tongue, please don't. It makes the words sound awful.
I'm still annoyed with stargåte.
To be fair, the å in Stargate is a coincidence, as it's the symbol to represent earth which is represented by a pictograph of a pyramid with the sun behind it, i.e. this.
But I can imagine how annoying that is, I can read Cyrillic and every time people use a Я to be an R it bogs my mind for a second.
it's okay, let them use ø in to, and then ask them to pronounce it. they'll reallllly struggle to get it. maybe even try to have them say rødgrøn med fløde to see them really suffer pronouncing something.
For me it makes the text MUCH harder to read. Basically, instead of just quickly "scanning" the text I need to stop and consciously decipher words with this character.
When I read words I know I don't read them letter by letter, I just recognize the entire "shape" instantly. The thorn throws this mechanism off completely for me.
It usually will completely defeat my ability to read when I come across it, if I havent seen it in a while.
But once I realize what's going on my brain processes it fine.
But for a second my thought process goes "Stroke?... No, just metaphorical sand in the metaphorical reading gears."
leɪm. ˈtruli ˈɛləɡənt ˈpipəl ʃʊd bi ˈjuzɪŋ aɪ-pi-eɪ.
ipa's fun, and honestly very useful! more people should learn it at least.
It should be THE alphabet. No more "how does this sound?" / ”how do you spell it?".
I would agree if IPA wasn't so stupidly European. Basicallly has the same issue as Esperanto.
European how? IIRC it's one sign, one sound.
As in strongly focused in Europe. Some of the most well-known criticism of IPA are that it does not properly help reflect the phonetics of languages present in the Americas, Africa or Asia. Ya know, continents that are not Europe. Heck a good meme among the know-who could be to call the IPA as A, as it's not International and not Phonetic.
Then maybe the solution is to expand the IPA to include all those sounds.
Edit: I just checked the WP page and it seems it has a way to be expanded and has been modified many times.
It's not hard to read so I just laugh at how fucking mad one guy gets everyone. I know they're idiotically stubborn don't worry.
I agree with the personalizing! I have a friend who wasn't very good in English, so he masked it with leetspeak, and now that has simply become his style. It's a bit of a hurdle getting used to it, but it's rather intuitive, fortunately.