Council for German Orthography
The Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung (German pronunciation: [ˈʁaːt fyːɐ̯ ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈʁɛçtˌʃʁaɪbʊŋ], Council for German Orthography), or RdR, is the main international body regulating German orthography.
With its seat being in Mannheim, Germany, the RdR was formed in 2004 as a successor to the Zwischenstaatliche Kommission für deutsche Rechtschreibung ("Intergovernmental Commission for German Orthography") in order to comprise proponents as well as opponents to the German orthography reform of 1996 (and subsequent reforms).
Currently the RdR is composed of 39 members from the those states and regions that comprise the German Sprachraum:
Germany: 18 councillors
Austria: 9 councillors
Switzerland: 9 councillors
South Tyrol (Italy): 1 councillor
German-speaking Community of Belgium: 1 councillor
Liechtenstein: 1 councillor
Luxembourg: 1 observer (no voting right)Despite having German as one of its official languages, Luxembourg, which was not involved in devising the reform of 1996, is not a full member of the council. The government of Luxembourg unilaterally adopted the reform, and its efficiency makes well-accepted by the country's teachers.
German orthography
German orthography is the orthography used in writing the German language, which is largely phonemic. However, it shows many instances of spellings that are historic or analogous to other spellings rather than phonemic. The pronunciation of almost every word can be derived from its spelling once the spelling rules are known, but the opposite is not generally the case.
Today, German orthography is regulated by the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung (RdR; German for "Council for German Orthography").
Alphabet
The modern German alphabet consists of the twenty-six letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet:
Special characters
German uses letter-diacritic combinations (Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü) using the umlaut and one ligature (ß (called Eszett (sz) or scharfes S, sharp s)), but they do not constitute distinct letters in the alphabet.
Capital ẞ exists, but has very limited use. In the past, long s (ſ) was used as well.
Umlaut diacritic usage
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