Rolling R in German

Huchu   Tuesday, April 26, 2005, 21:57 GMT
Vytenis: <I can use both: uvular and roling Rs and I will be still considered as speaking "standard German"?>

Yes, of course. Most of my friends from Poland, Portugal and Latinamerica roll the R when they speak German. Nobody cares about it, since it is also correct in Hochdeutsch. And if you speak without grammar errors and roll the R like the italians do (e.g. in Roma) one could even assume you come from south Germany.
Huchu   Tuesday, April 26, 2005, 22:01 GMT
"You Germans have lived too much protected from spelling reforms"
"You should have called a mobile phone a "Telchen" = Telefonchen"

You could perhaps send your suggestions to the committee of 'specialists' who are going to reform the new orthography reform this year. ;-)
Travis   Tuesday, April 26, 2005, 22:36 GMT
If anything, we'll likely see our good friends "muß" and "daß" once again as the "canonical" forms for such pretty soon.
Fredrik from Norway   Wednesday, April 27, 2005, 20:17 GMT
I think the new reform is smart when making the ß the mark of a long vowel. What use has it otherwise?
Huchu   Wednesday, April 27, 2005, 23:59 GMT
The ß is also used after a diphthong, eg. reißen, draußen, heißen, Preußen, Gauß, etc.
The German orthography was never 100% logical and has not become more logical after the new orthography system was introduced. Otherwise they would have eliminated the use of ß after a diphthong, or even better, they could have definitively got rid of the letter ß. Then, in the case of words ending with a long vowel, you would write "gros", "grus", etc. So there were other interests than logic itself. Moreover, according to the new system you have to write: Zelllinie, Betttuch, etc. The same consonant written three times consecutively! Such a stupidity! Just to show you another example:"Friseur" can also be written as Frisör but Friteuse was not changed to Fritöse. And we'd better not talk about the new rules regarding the separation of words and the use of the hyphen! And the worst of all is that children and adolescents have more problems with the new orthography than with the old one.

<If anything, we'll likely see our good friends "muß" and "daß" once again as the "canonical" forms for such pretty soon.>
I also hope so. Only those who love the German language and feel connected to it regret the disappearance of "daß", muß, etc. Well, I keep writing "daß" and use the old system, as many others do. The reform was only a waste of money and time. It is planned to be reformed this year (I hope for better this time).
Fredrik from Norway   Thursday, April 28, 2005, 08:35 GMT
Ok, I forgot about ß after dipthong. But for a non-native learner of German it is very convenient to be able to determine the vowel length.
Spell your name and I tell you I love yo   Thursday, April 28, 2005, 19:58 GMT
Swiss spelling system is more efficient. They get rid of the ß . We expect Germany and Austria to follow in our footsteps, soon. Please hurry up, our spelling train is leaving...
Huchu   Thursday, April 28, 2005, 20:54 GMT
"Swiss spelling system is more efficient"

Great for the Swiss. You always do everything more efficient!
Please give us some examples of your system.