Re: [Groff] german localization

[Bernd Warken]

On Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 07:23:02AM -0500, Larry Kollar wrote:
> 
> Bernd Warken <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > The German orthography is in a revision.  The old German orthography
> > originates from the year 1901.  It will be valid up to 2005.
> > The new rules are valid since August 1998.
> 
> May I ask what prompted this bit of tinkering?
> 
Logic.

Before 1901, there was only 1 rule: "Write as you talk".  So wasn't any
official orthography for the German language.  Konrad Duden run a 
standardization project between 1901 and 1915 that was used until 1998.
It had some design flaws and some serious bugs.  So an update became
necessary.

People say that the 1998 update did not go far enough.  At least the
German orthography is now logically sounder, easier to learn for kids and
peolpe from abroad.

Bernd Warken