--- Forwarded Message from Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> --- >Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 15:41:22 -0700 >From: Derek Roff <[log in to unmask]> >To: LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>, Deanne Cobb <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: #7063 German special character >In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]> >References: <[log in to unmask]> Perhaps you could simulate the character that you want, umlaut over hyphen, with an umlaut and the combining macron. I haven't tried it, I'm just thinking that the macron is one of the few characters that I am aware of that has a standalone form ($AF) and a combining form ($304) in Unicode. There may be other "combining" options in Word or HTML. On the other hand, perhaps the best solution is to provide the student with more comprehensible information. I suspect that the obscure, specialized shortcuts that appear in dictionaries, were created by a league of insane typesetters in preceding centuries as revenge against the elite classes. I may be wrong about that, but it is clear that many students find such typography very confusing or completely opaque. Indeed, PhD professors find some of these typographical quirks confusing, too, in languages that they haven't studied. A teacher faces the dilemma of whether to do what the dictionary does, so that students get used to it, or to print things in a way that students are likely to understand the first time. I tend to pick the latter approach, since in my experience, students are already frustrated enough with learning a new language, and their motivation and attention levels are diminished by additional, unnecessary levels of typographical obfuscation. I've tried both approaches, and neither one fully solves the problem. I am no longer surprised when an advanced student misunderstands dictionary typography after several years of study. Derek ->> From: Deanne Cobb <[log in to unmask]> >> Sender: [log in to unmask] >> Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 14:29:31 -0600 >> To: [log in to unmask] >> Subject: German special character > > I am currently working on developing an exercise for German, and I > would like to be able to type the German words with the singular > and the plural as they would appear in a dictionary (or textbook), > eg. die Straße, -n. This is fine until I run into a word that > takes an umlaut over a previous vowel in the plural form (ie. das > Haus, die Häuser). The way that this is to be written is das > Haus, -"er, except that the quotation marks are supposed to appear > as an umlaut above the dash. Word 2000 doesn't list this as a > special character and I have been unable to find a unicode or html > code for it. > > Does anyone have any suggestions? > > Thanks! > Deanne Cobb > Language Lab Manager > Language Resource Centre > University of Regina Derek Roff Language Learning Center, Ortega Hall Rm 129, University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131 505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885 Internet: [log in to unmask]