Deciphering Old German Handwriting in Letters, Diaries, Certificates, Church Records and More *Celebrating Five Years of Genealogy Translation* **Translated for PBS’ Finding Your Roots & The History Channel ** Discovering your German ancestors is an exciting journey. For technical terms, the foreign spelling is often retained such as ph /f/ or y /yː/ in the word Physik (physics) of Greek origin. German orthography is the orthography used in writing the German language, which is largely phonemic. In 1944, the Nazi German government planned a reform of the orthography, but because of World War II, it was never implemented. But in Germany, the script used in handwriting has changed dramatically. Etymological Dictionary of the German Language: An old PDF, but has a lot of old information. Incorrect use of the ß letter is a common type of spelling error even among native German writers. the description is the meaning and history write-up for the name; separate search terms with spaces; search for an exact phrase by surrounding it with double quotes. After World War II, this tradition was followed with two different centers: Mannheim in West Germany and Leipzig in East Germany. Thank you for this post. Translate German documents to English in multiple office formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, OpenOffice, text) by simply uploading them into our free online translator. The modern German alphabet consists of the twenty-six letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet plus four special letters. They will be understood whether they look like dots (¨), acute accents (˝), vertical bars (‖), a horizontal bar (macron, ¯), a breve (˘), a tiny N or e, a tilde (˜), and such variations are often used in stylized writing (e.g. In order to translate handwritten German to English, you need substantial experience in understanding the old scripts. It is a Western calligraphy style that was used in Europe from 1100s to the 1600s. It is used either as an alternative letter for i, for instance in Mayer / Meyer (a common family name that occurs also in the spellings Maier / Meier), or especially in the Southwest, as a representation of [iː] that goes back to an old IJ (digraph), for instance in Schwyz or Schnyder (an Alemannic variant of the name Schneider). Letters from your ancestors can be impossible to read because of these changes. Its use declined after World War I, but was revived briefly during the Third Reich. Every font is free to download! I’ve added it to my German section on my resources page. When it is not possible to use the umlauts (for example, when using a restricted character set) the characters Ä, Ö, Ü, ä, ö, ü should be transcribed as Ae, Oe, Ue, ae, oe, ue respectively, following the earlier postvocalic-e convention; simply using the base vowel (e.g. I would like to show you some typical old German print and writing scripts here. In the letter, Holzapfel details the brutality of what advancing Russian soldiers were doing to German civilians in the final days of World War II. 1 - st. letter R. 2 - st. letter E. 3 - st. letter I. ***** - old german state. Old German Handschrift (handwriting), known as die Kurrentschrift orKurrent for short in German, but also known simply as die alte deutsche Schrift (‘Old German script’), was closely modelled on the handwriting used in das Mittelalter(medieval times). Do you need old German letters translated? So, here is a step-by-step instruction for formal letters and an example letter. [1], While the Council for German Orthography considers Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü, and ẞ/ß distinct letters,[1] disagreement on how to categorize and count them has led to a dispute over the exact number of letters the German alphabet has, the number ranging between 26 (special letters are considered variants of A, O, U, and S) and 30 (all special letters are counted separately).[4]. die Meile, mile, or die Kasette, casette. The breved u was common in some Kurrent-derived handwritings; it was mandatory in Sütterlin. For instance, café in the sense of "coffeehouse" is always written Café in German; accentless Cafe would be considered erroneous, and the word cannot be written Kaffee, which means "coffee". *You must type, preceding 0. Each letter has an upper case version first followed by a lower case. The new orthography is mandatory only in schools. Even a spelling change, e.g. The most important aspect of letter-writing in German is to determine whether it will be a formal or casual letter. Since 2010 its use is mandatory in official documentation in Germany when writing geographical names in all-caps. English-Old High German Dictionary: A large PDF file with a ton of words. German spelling and punctuation was changed in 1996 (Reform der deutschen Rechtschreibung von 1996) with the intent to simplify German orthography, and thus to make the language easier to learn,[18] without substantially changing the rules familiar to users of the language. The Sütterlin script and the Sütterlin alphabet. word on "R". logos). Click to find the best 25 free fonts in the Gothic German style. The reform was adopted initially by Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, and later by Luxembourg as well. This can lead to long words: the longest word in regular use, Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften[11] ("legal protection insurance companies"), consists of 39 letters. Letter openers are products of an age when communication was a good deal more ceremonial than it is today. The proper transcription when it cannot be used is ss (sz and SZ in earlier times). In German, there are far more stipulations when writing a formal letter. HEINZ GROßE, today's spelling: HEINZ GROẞE). The letter y (Ypsilon, /ˈʏpsilɔn/) occurs almost exclusively in loanwords, especially words of Greek origin, but some such words (such as Typ) have become so common that they are no longer perceived as foreign. Not adhering to these formalities, you risk sounding rude and impertinent. When you leave the country, these are all things you will need to cancel, and in Germa… Common German Script reading problems from Legacy webinars "Deciphering German Script" by Gail S. Blankenau, Genealogist This is the old German Scripth alphabet. Being able to recognize the four extra letters and to convert the other German letters into their English sound are essential to translating German. For formal correspondence, there are a number of acceptable salutations. Other letters occur less often such as ç in loan words from French or Portuguese, and ñ in loan words from Spanish. ... Brieftraeger( in) -letter carrier Brinker, Brinklieger, Brinkmann, Brinksitzer, Brinkkoet( h) ner -cottager on the edge of a village near a grassy hill called a Brink Briser -border maker The German spelling reform of 1996 somewhat reduced usage of this letter in Germany and Austria. Even before the introduction of the capital ẞ, it was recommended to use the minuscule ß as a capital letter in family names in documents (e.g. Deciphering them is difficult, and is a rare and dying skill.​I would like to help you finally understand what is written in your old German letters, thereby learning interesting news, and perhaps discovering valuable information.Please go to the Contact Me page for a quote. In the same year, the Duden was declared to be authoritative in Prussia. Foreign words are usually pronounced approximately as they are in the original language. An umlaut is the pair of dots placed over certain vowels; in German, Umlaut describes the dotted letter, not just the dots. Occasionally it is treated as s, but this is generally considered incorrect. With the aforementioned change in ß spelling, even a new source of triple consonants sss, which in pre-1996 spelling could not occur as it was rendered ßs, was introduced, e. g. Mussspiel ('compulsory round' in certain card games, composed of muss 'must' and Spiel 'game'). Looking for Gothic German fonts? Blackletter fonts have letters that are very bold and ornate. So please keep the following in mind when writing a letter. [12], For other foreign words, both the foreign spelling and a revised German spelling are correct such as Delphin / Delfin[13] or Portemonnaie / Portmonee, though in the latter case the revised one does not usually occur.[14]. 1941, the use of Kurrent and Sütterlin script was banned in the German Reich, and schools started to teach modern cursive instead. In German Kurrentwriting, the superscripted e was simplified to two vertical dashes, which have further been reduced to dots in both h… OLD GERMAN COIN 'OLD GERMAN COIN' is a 13 letter phrase starting with O and ending with N Crossword clues for 'OLD GERMAN COIN' Clue Answer; Old German coin (7) PFENNIG: Former German currency unit (7) Synonyms, crossword answers and other related words for OLD GERMAN … A possible sequence of names then would be "Mukovic; Muller; Müller; Mueller; Multmann" in this order. A 1998 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany confirmed that there is no law on the spelling people use in daily life, so they can use the old or the new spelling. Deciphering them is difficult, and is a rare and dying skill. According to the spelling before 1996, the three consonants would be shortened before vowels, but retained before consonants and in hyphenation, so the word Schifffahrt ('navigation, shipping', composed of Schiff 'ship' and Fahrt 'drive, trip, tour') was then written Schiffahrt, whereas Sauerstoffflasche already had a triple fff. A sort of combination of nos. By the 16th century, a new interregional standard developed on the basis of the East Central German and Austro-Bavarian varieties. How to Write a German Letter. Old German Font Types. These consonants are analyzed as ambisyllabic because they constitute not only the syllable onset of the second syllable but also the syllable coda of the first syllable, which must not be empty because the syllable nucleus is a checked vowel. The first column is the German letter, the second describes the IPA pronunciation and rough English approximation of the letter name. Deciphering them is difficult, and is a rare and dying skill. [1] When you're researching your family history, it can be fascinating to read the letters of​ your ancestors. How to type special German letters by using their Alt Codes? Automatic back-transcribing is not only wrong for names. The official names are eszett or scharfes S [sharp s].) Ausgabe 2010, Rechtschreibrat führt neuen Buchstaben ein, canoo.net: Spelling for "Photographie/Fotografie", canoo.net: Spelling for "Portemonnaie/Portmonee", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=German_orthography&oldid=990810984#Alphabet, Articles with German-language sources (de), Articles with unsourced statements from November 2009, Articles needing additional references from December 2010, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Eszett; in Austria and Southern Germany Scharfes S, Treat them like their base characters, as if the umlaut were not present (, They are treated like extra letters either placed, after their base letters (Austrian phone books have. We use the German alphabet not only in Germany but also in Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and in Luxembourg. Old German script. Handwritten documents were composed in cursive using a type of script known as blackletter. Nowadays very few German speakers can read or write Old German Script. In response, the Ministers of Culture of the federal states in West Germany officially declared the Duden spellings to be binding as of November 1955. Blackletter is also known as Old English or Gothic script. The rules of the new spelling concern correspondence between sounds and written letters (including rules for spelling loan words), capitalisation, joined and separate words, hyphenated spellings, punctuation, and hyphenation at the end of a line. 4 - st. letter C. 5 - st. letter H. Crosswords puzzles, an affordable and effective way to train the intellect, increase knowledge. This is an excellent post to help those of us who need to translate old German handwriting. Further details may exist on the, Die Erde: Haack Kleiner Atlas; VEB Hermann Haack geographisch-kartographische Anstalt, Gotha, 1982; pages: 97, 100, 153, 278, Italien: Straßenatlas 1:300.000 mit Ortsregister; Kunth Verlag GmbH & Co. KG 2016/2017; München; page: III, Lexikon A—Z in zwei Bänden; Volkseigener Verlag, Leipzig, 1956—1957. Solve word puzzles to develop logical and creative thinking, to … The e in the ending -en is often silent, as in bitten "to ask, request". This change towards the so-called Heyse spelling, however, introduced a new sort of spelling error, as the long/short pronunciation differs regionally. I guess you will find a lot of varying explanations and examples when you surf the web or look it up in books but, I do assure you that you will be safe with the following explanation : To separate the au diphthong, as well as some others, which are graphically composed of potentially umlaut-holding letters, the acute accent is sometimes used (e.g. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish language until 1875, and for German, Estonian and Latvian until the 1940s. Letters in German should always begin with a short greeting addressed to the reader of the letter. Deciphering Old German Handwriting in Letters, Diaries, Certificates, Church Records and More *Celebrating Five Years of Genealogy Translation* **Translated for PBS’ Finding Your Roots & The History Channel ** Discovering your German ancestors is an exciting journey. The three possible spelling variants of the same name (e.g. In 1876, the Prussian government instituted the First Orthographic Conference [de] to achieve a standardization for the entire German Empire. A notable example is the word Foto, with the meaning “photograph”, which may no longer be spelled as Photo. Double consonants are pronounced as single consonants, except in compound words. Eszett is sorted as though it were ss. Letter: PosVtovani svec/enicVe, This Kurrent script, sometimes simply called “Old German Script” or “German cursive”, was used into the first part of the 20th century in all German speaking countries and, with a few changes, also in Scandinavia. Before the 20th century, most documents were written by hand. As most early German documents Haustür (Haus+Tür; house door), Tischlampe (Tisch+Lampe; table lamp), Kaltwasserhahn (Kalt+Wasser+Hahn; cold water tap/faucet). Letters from your ancestors can be impossible to read because of these changes. There were periods where consonant sounds changed slightly between German and English. Significant production of German texts only resumed during the reign of the Hohenstaufen dynasty (in the High Middle Ages). The German alphabet has 26 letters, 3 umlauts (Ä,Ö,Ü) and one ligature (ß). The Character Palette will appear. Native German words now pronounced with a /ks/ sound are usually written using chs or (c)ks, as with Fuchs (fox). Not adhering to these formalities, you risk sounding rude and impertinent. [19] While the reform is not very popular in opinion polls, it has been adopted by all major dictionaries and the majority of publishing houses. At the same time, however, they found themselves forced to make finer and finer distinctions in the production of German spelling rules, and each new print run introduced a few reformed spellings. The best website for free high-quality Old German fonts, with 26 free Old German fonts for immediate download, and 72 professional Old German fonts for the best price on the Web. There are letters, diaries, birth certificates, handicraft rolls, … [citation needed] Another notable exception is Bayern ("Bavaria") and derived words like bayrisch ("Bavarian"); this actually used to be spelt with an i until the King of Bavaria introduced the y as a sign of his philhellenism (his son would become King of Greece later). Unlike in Hungarian, the exact shape of the umlaut diacritics – especially when handwritten – is not important, because they are the only ones in the language (not counting the tittle on i and j). While this is usually a sign that the consonant is actually spoken long, it does not affect the pronunciation per se: the fff in Sauerstoffflasche ('oxygen bottle', composed of Sauerstoff 'oxygen' and Flasche 'bottle') is exactly as long as the ff in Schaffell. So, here is a step-by-step instruction for formal letters and an example letter. This follows the general rule in German that a long vowel is followed by a single consonant, while a short vowel is followed by a double consonant. Consider, for example, das neue Buch ("the new book"). [12] Both Photographie and Fotografie are correct, but the mixed variants Fotographie or Photografie are not. 3. If a woman sends this letter, all words ending in capital O should be changed to end in -la (i.e. 1 and 2 also exists, in use in a couple of lexica: The umlaut is sorted with the base character, but an ae, oe, ue in proper names is sorted with the umlaut if it is actually spoken that way (with the umlaut getting immediate precedence). Therefore their colloquial name became “Deutsche Schrift” (German Script). Besides the long/short pronunciation issue, which can be attributed to dialect speaking (for instance, in the northern parts of Germany Spaß is typically pronounced short, i.e. After the Carolingian Renaissance, however, during the reigns of the Ottonian and Salian dynasties in the 10th century and 11th century, German was rarely written, the literary language being almost exclusively Latin. Difficulty in reading a record may not result from a record keeper’s poor penmanship but rather the use of a different style of handwriting. But often, the old handwriting can be impossible to read. Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. In German Kurrent writing, the superscripted e was simplified to two vertical dashes, which have further been reduced to dots in both handwriting and German typesetting.