Am 2000-09-12 um 16:14 h UCT hat [EMAIL PROTECTED] geschrieben:
> So, for example, the meaning of a text wouldn't change according to
> whether a sequence of "fi" is or isn't ligated.
This is not true for German.
German typographic rules forbid a ligature across the constituent
boundaries in compounds. So, if a text has ligatures, at all, the
absence of an, otherwise possible, ligature indicates a constituent
boundary.
You can verify this, e. g., in a professionally typeset German-English
dictionary, such as Cassell's (ISBN 0-304-52292-9): look up the words
"aufliegen" (or any other word starting with "aufl"), without an f-l
ligature, and "auffliegen" (or "fliegen"), with an f-l ligature.
(I could not readyly find an example involving f and i, though.)
Now, German allows almost arbitrary compound words, hence the presence
or absence of a particular constituent boundary may well make a dif-
ference, in some cases. One minimal pair (I think, it was introduced
by Jörg K) is "Taufliege":
- with an f-l ligature, it clearly means "drosophyla", alternate spelling
"Tau-Fliege",
- with separate f and l, in a text otherwise having ligatures,
it means "baptizing bed" (whatever that may be), alternate spelling
"Tauf-Liege",
(The first one is a standard term, though not mentioned in my copy
of Cassel's; the second one is an ad-hoc invention, though following
a common scheme: Cassel's lists 15 similar compounds, from "Taufakt"
through "Taufzeuge".) I am sure that other minimal pairs exist waiting
to be discovered, some even involving f and i.
For German needs, a "zero-width non-ligator" character would be suitable,
as only the absence of a ligature carries any meaning; a "zero-width
ligator" character would not be feasable for German, as the pre-
sence of ligatures at large is a matter of the fonts and skills
used in rendering, or typesetting, so you cannot insert ZWLs in every
position where a ligation could occurr, if only the text were brought
into a suitably sophisticated environment.
As the hyphenating rules follow the same pattern as the non-ligating,
we can get along with the syllable hyphen though (where it is correctly
implemented, that is).
Best wishes,
Otto Stolz
