Mark D Lew wrote:
Some time in the indefinite future I'm going to be editing a publication with some Wagner texts, and it will fall to me to decide whether to spell words with the sz ligature (�) or with the modern "ss" spelling.
If anyone has opinions on the matter, or can point me to a good discussion of it on the Web, I'd love to hear it. (I would welcome opinions on the question of sz ligature in old texts generally or with regard to Wagner specifically.)
This is a fair summary of the current orthography reform discussion:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_der_deutschen_Rechtschreibung_von_1996:_Kritik_und_Apologetik
At present the official reform practice (which includes a compromise on the � question, not the total elimination of the character) is in the official school curriculum of Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and 14 of the 15 Lands in Germany (Schleswig-Holstein retains the old orthography in its schools)), commercial practice in Germany is about 50-50, so that the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, for example, continues to publish in the old orthography.
Personally, as an American who lived in Germanyfor more than ten years (and will return later this year), I find the present unclear situation to be an advantageous one for the development of the German language away from a centralized academic orthography (as in France or Spain) and towards a more natural development (as in Anglophone countries).
BTW, if I were citing Wagner in a text, I would keep his orthography but use a roman font.
Daniel Wolf
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