On 13 Feb 2005 at 2:46, 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 (ß) or with the modern > "ss" spelling.
I'm not sure where you're getting the "sz" from -- that is not what it is at all. If you look at it in German schrift (i.e., handwriting), it's quite clear that it's two s's, one the "f-like" version followed by a crook to a regular lower-case s. > 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.) Retain the original orthography, especially if you don't actually speak German and understand the rules (whether the old ones or the new ones). They aren't complicated to learn, but you do have to know where the syllable breaks are (for compound words). Also, retain the original capitalization. > Most contemporary quotations I've seen use the modern spelling, but I > kind of like the authenticity of preserving the older spelling. I'm > not well educated on the question, though, so I'm seeking advice from > others who know better than I do. I'm not so much interested in a yes > or no answer as getting a feel for what the historical background is, > what considerations of context go into making the decision, how it > will be perceived by readers, etc. For what it's worth, the target > audience of my publication would be English-speaking opera fans most > of whom don't know much German. To those people, it won't make a lick of difference which one you use! -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
