3.429 old spelling: Fraktur (29)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Tue, 5 Sep 89 20:26:10 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 429. Tuesday, 5 Sep 1989.
Date: 5 September 1989 17:36:35 CDT
From: "Michael Sperberg-McQueen 312 996-2477 -2981" <U35395@UICVM>
Subject: fraktur
I do not know when all these people went to school that they learned
German out of textbooks printed in Fraktur. But there doesn't seem to
be much point in it to me. Fraktur is essential to anyone who wants to
read older German printed matter, but it's certainly not in common use
today, or for the last forty years. The only books in Fraktur I've seen
published since 1945 are all photographic reprints, and most of my
German friends under 40 avoid reading it.
Brian Whittaker is right that knowledge of language change is important
for specialists in literature, although many very bright people seem to
make very good careers not caring much about linguistic change, and
don't seem to miss it. But do we want Goethe and Shakespeare read only
by specialists in literature? I don't.
-Michael Sperberg-McQueen
University of Illinois at Chicago