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From: Ron Skaggs
Remote Name: 75.62.241.145
Date: 02/20/2011
Time: 05:09:12 PM
Webmaster The author, Walt Voldges has made many contributions to not only SCI but to the added understanding and enjoyment of stein collecting. The article "What Does This Blasted Thing Say?" is representative of his works. The student primer link supports his work. What it does beyond that is to show a few more of the combined letters that are common in the "old German". While it may not improve on the article what it does show that the german "alphabet" is somewhat larger than represented. In the article Walt states "The first thing to note is that there are 30 letters provided, 29 in both upper and lower case, plus one (the last one in the table) only in lower case, not the standard 26 that we are accustomed to dealing with." In actuality, according to the primer and other sources, there are 26 letters in the german alphabet, at least 4 modified vowels and another 8 compound consonants of which Walt listed just one, the "ß". "ß" is actually one of two ways the double "s" is written. Along with the 8 compound consonants in the primer I found several websites that include an additional 2 compound consonants making a total of 10. So the article , written beautifully by Mr Voldges to help people read the lettering, might somehow recognize an actual alphabet of 26 letters plus 4 modified vowels and 10 compound consonants. A total 14 variations plus the original 26. Ron Skaggs