Quote:
Originally Posted by eddie
One thing in German that confuses me ( I don't speak German BTW), in typing out German words, which come first the a or the e. Which is correct, Jaeger or Jeager? Might not be the word to try this on, but I have been corrected several times by a friend from Hamburg.
We were talking about German Night Fighters from WWII, I wrote Nacht Jaegers, and got corrected pretty quick!
|
ä = ae
ö = oe
ü = ue
The 'e' always comes second, with no exception.
And no, Oberon, it is not really "butchering" German, but was common praxis in Germany with official documents and in all cases when one was not sure a receiver of a document could type or decypher German Umlaute. It even was used in passports and ID-cards, and in the early time of PC computing. My second name includes an Umlaut, and in my first passport that I got when I was 16, it was typed as "oe", my first driving license also. Today, however, at least in Germany and much of Europe, Umlaute cause no issues with PC software anymore.
Occasionally I still use it even today, for example when giving a shipping address.