1 What is this document about?  

Although I enabled the German language I try my best to write in English. The german-option enables those special characters I would like to explain below.

1.1 German specials in TEX  

The package `german.sty' and the `babel' system define some special character sequences for several languages. As far as the German language is concerned, both are compatible.

My language has lots of lengthy words (`Arbeiter-Unfallversicherungsgesetz') and (at the first view) strange hyphenation rules (Schiffahrtsmuseum, but Schiff-
fahrtsmuseum when hyphenating after the double-f<sup>1</sup>) that kill TEX's hyphenation algorithm. Hence some auxiliary constructs have been invented to support TEX in these cases. The commands defined in `german.sty', which is a standard for German language rules in TEX, are described in the following table.

 

"s and "z Print German `sharp s' (ß). Shortcut for \ss. Same as "z Print German `sharp s'. ß , ß

"S Print `SS' (There is no capital `sharp s'). Useful with case changing commands. Print `SS' SS

"Z Print `SZ'. Some German words are ambiguous when converted to capitals (compare `Maße' and `Masse' resp. with `MASSE' and `MASSE').
In such cases `SZ' is often used instead: `MASZE'. Print `SZ' SZ

"ck Print `ck'. This sequence is hyphenated to `k-k'. Print `ck' ck

"ff Print `ff'. This sequence is hyphenated to `ff-f'. Also defined for l, m, n, p, r and t. Print `ff' etc. ff , ll
mm , nn
pp , rr , tt

"` and "' German double open/close quote (,,X``). Print `,,X``' ,,X``

"< and "> Print french double open/close quote («X»).
Also \flqq and \frqq Print `«X»'
or use ISO-Latin-1
« and » «X»

"{} Obsolete command to print double-quote character (") Print double-quote character "

"- Possible hyphenation point. Allow additional TEX hyphenation in both parts. Ignore.

"" Line-breaking possible without hyphenation character Ignore.

"| Avoid ligature Ignore

"~ Dash without hyphenation point Print dash. -

"= Dash with hyphenation point. Allow additional TEX hyphenation in both parts. Print dash -

\glqq , \grqq see "` and "' ,,X``

\glq , \grq German single open/close quote (,X`) Print `,X`' ,X`

\flq , \frq Print french single open/close quote (<X>) Print `<X>' <X>

\dq Print " Print " "

 

Footnotes

...double-f¹

Did you notice the hyphenation although the word contains a dash?