zum ß, entstanden aus den Sütterlin Buchstaben s und z, natürlich sahen die in der Sütterlinschreibweise anders aus, aber eben genau so wie in deinem Beispiel Congreß. das s in der Wortmitte sah ungefähr so aus: ſ und das z sah fast so aus: ʒ, zusammen dann ſʒ
My Grandma had to learn a script called "Kurrent" which was a derivative of the old gothic script also called "old german script" (the latin script became common after WWI) there you had 3 types of "S"...the normal one "s" called "round s" and one which looked like a bit like an "f" but without the dash called "long s" (the same as the first one in your "congress -example" by the way) and then the "sharp one" "ß" which was originally a ligature of the gothic long s and the gothic z that´s why it is also called "sz" as well and that´s why "congress" was before 86/87 written in german "Kongreß" but now today it is written "Kongress" I´m a bit older and before 1986/87 for instance the word "dass" was written "daß" as well..and I do it till today...but generally "ß" is slowly but surely disappearing in many words and is replaced with "ss"...in my youth there were much more words with "ß" which are now spelled with "ss"..Like for instance "Schloß or Kuß"..now written "Schloss", "Kuss"....the written german language is changing all the time .. Since my school-time in the seventies/eighties there were 2 writing-reforms..a big one at 86/87..where I left school and therefore it didn´t effect me directly..although I had to adjust which I did just to a certain point and not to 100% because many of that things which changed was simply randomly without any logical purpose unless to make some things maybe easier for those who didn´t learn "rules" and "conherences".. For instance I refuse to write "Albtraum" therefore I write "Alptraum" as like it was because "Alpen" are not written "Alben" either as well.... because the meaning of "Alp-" of "Alptraum" is originally related with "Alpen" = "Alp" is old german for "Danger/Fear"..and crossing those specific mountains was in earlier times very dangerous and fearful which costed thousands of lifes as well therefore the name "Alpen".... and a "Alptraum" is simply a fearful dream (that original relation/conherence got totally lost by writing "Alptraum" with "b") ...and one smaller writing-reform in the 90ties..
You would've come across clearer if you had explained the German vowel system beforehands - and that there are some ways to signify the quantity of each vowel, and that these ways are not necessarily consistent for historical and typographical reasons. German has 8 Vowels: a, e, i, o, u, ä, ö, ü and three diphthongs au, eu (also oi or äu), ei (also ai) A simple vowel can be either long or short. If it is followed by a double consonant, it is always short. Note, that there is no double k but always "ck", and that in "die Stadt" the "dt" replaces a "tt". Long vowels can be signified by - double letters: aa, ee, oo - a silent h: ah, eh, oh, uh, äh, öh, üh - a silent e or i: ie (the rest nowadays only occurs Northern German names or places like Voigt, Klaes, Kerschenbroich) The letter s can both signify a voiced or devoiced /s/-sound. In between two vowels, it is usually voiced: Rose, Muse, lose, kosen, and the preceeding vowel is either a diphthong or long. But: One of German's specialties is the so-called final devoicing, so, a consonant that can be both voiced or devoiced, occurs always devoiced in the end of a word. The spelling, though, is always the spelling of the correct stem consonant. Example: "der Tod" (death) in its nominative case is pronounced with a devoiced /t/ sound in the end, but the consonant instantly becomes a voiced /d/ in all other cases with a flection ending ("des Todes, dem Tode, pl. die Tode, der Tode, den Toden, die Tode"). This phenomenon is called the "graphematic repression of final devoicing". As the unvoiced /s/ can occur after both long and short vowels, the Germans have agreed on using the letter ß exclusively for signifying the long vowel: Buße vs. Busse, Maße vs. Masse. I hope I haven't thrown you off completely...
zum ß, entstanden aus den Sütterlin Buchstaben s und z, natürlich sahen die in der Sütterlinschreibweise anders aus, aber eben genau so wie in deinem Beispiel Congreß. das s in der Wortmitte sah ungefähr so aus: ſ und das z sah fast so aus: ʒ, zusammen dann ſʒ
My Grandma had to learn a script called "Kurrent" which was a derivative of the old gothic script also called "old german script" (the latin script became common after WWI) there you had 3 types of "S"...the normal one "s" called "round s" and one which looked like a bit like an "f" but without the dash called "long s" (the same as the first one in your "congress -example" by the way) and then the "sharp one" "ß" which was originally a ligature of the gothic long s and the gothic z that´s why it is also called "sz" as well and that´s why "congress" was before 86/87 written in german "Kongreß" but now today it is written "Kongress"
I´m a bit older and before 1986/87 for instance the word "dass" was written "daß" as well..and I do it till today...but generally "ß" is slowly but surely disappearing in many words and is replaced with "ss"...in my youth there were much more words with "ß" which are now spelled with "ss"..Like for instance "Schloß or Kuß"..now written "Schloss", "Kuss"....the written german language is changing all the time ..
Since my school-time in the seventies/eighties there were 2 writing-reforms..a big one at 86/87..where I left school and therefore it didn´t effect me directly..although I had to adjust which I did just to a certain point and not to 100% because many of that things which changed was simply randomly without any logical purpose unless to make some things maybe easier for those who didn´t learn "rules" and "conherences"..
For instance I refuse to write "Albtraum" therefore I write "Alptraum" as like it was because "Alpen" are not written "Alben" either as well.... because the meaning of "Alp-" of "Alptraum" is originally related with "Alpen" = "Alp" is old german for "Danger/Fear"..and crossing those specific mountains was in earlier times very dangerous and fearful which costed thousands of lifes as well therefore the name "Alpen".... and a "Alptraum" is simply a fearful dream (that original relation/conherence got totally lost by writing "Alptraum" with "b") ...and one smaller writing-reform in the 90ties..
You would've come across clearer if you had explained the German vowel system beforehands - and that there are some ways to signify the quantity of each vowel, and that these ways are not necessarily consistent for historical and typographical reasons.
German has 8 Vowels: a, e, i, o, u, ä, ö, ü
and three diphthongs au, eu (also oi or äu), ei (also ai)
A simple vowel can be either long or short. If it is followed by a double consonant, it is always short. Note, that there is no double k but always "ck", and that in "die Stadt" the "dt" replaces a "tt".
Long vowels can be signified by
- double letters: aa, ee, oo
- a silent h: ah, eh, oh, uh, äh, öh, üh
- a silent e or i: ie (the rest nowadays only occurs Northern German names or places like Voigt, Klaes, Kerschenbroich)
The letter s can both signify a voiced or devoiced /s/-sound. In between two vowels, it is usually voiced: Rose, Muse, lose, kosen, and the preceeding vowel is either a diphthong or long.
But: One of German's specialties is the so-called final devoicing, so, a consonant that can be both voiced or devoiced, occurs always devoiced in the end of a word. The spelling, though, is always the spelling of the correct stem consonant. Example: "der Tod" (death) in its nominative case is pronounced with a devoiced /t/ sound in the end, but the consonant instantly becomes a voiced /d/ in all other cases with a flection ending ("des Todes, dem Tode, pl. die Tode, der Tode, den Toden, die Tode"). This phenomenon is called the "graphematic repression of final devoicing".
As the unvoiced /s/ can occur after both long and short vowels, the Germans have agreed on using the letter ß exclusively for signifying the long vowel: Buße vs. Busse, Maße vs. Masse.
I hope I haven't thrown you off completely...
I love there’s the letters ß and ß in German
Exception: "ie" is a monophthong in modern German (long i, like English ee), but was a diphthong in Middle High German.
don't forget ẞ (big Verson of ß)
ß
The bell
Mdavu tak nak buat apa
ÿ