NOV 16, 22 .. UMLAUTS ON A SMART PHONE

I am wondering how many of you know what Umlauts are?

It’s probably not going to help you one-iota, but below is a definition of Umlauts. 

Umlauts are assimilations or vowel harmonies. This means that one of the sounds was changed to make another similar sound that is easier to say. For example, if we say two vowels with one in the front part of the mouth and the other in the far back of the mouth, it will require us to put more effort than if we pronounced them closer together. By trying to pronounce these vowels together, the Germanic language got Umlauts.

Below is a (practically worthless referral in my opinion) Wikipedia article on Umlauts..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umlaut

Oh Good Lord Captain ! Where are we going with this ?

I lived in West Germany for four years from 1974 to 1978.

While living in West Germany, I learned enough German to be able to say in perfect German .. “I am sorry but I don’t speak German.” .. “Es tut mir leid, aber ich spreche kein Deutsch.”

Since my words  ” I don’t speak German. ” were said in perfect German, the German to whom I was speaking would reply in German not hearing what I had said because what I had said was in perfect German. 

Translation : ” How can this man say that he doesn’t speak German when he just spoke perfect German to me. “

Yes I learned a whole lot more German than that but you get the idea.

– – – – – – – – 

Enter our great friend from Germany Claudia.

Claudia’s husband (our famous ‘Zilla) is larger than Claudia and over the years they have called themselves the Big (Grosser) Bear and Little (Kleiner) Bear.

Here’s the issue.

For years, dating back into the 1990’s, when I wanted to refer to Claudia in writing as Kleiner Bear, I wanted to do so using German (Kleiner Bär).

Easy to do by pen and ink.

Easy to do with a laptop.

But I didn’t have a clue how to find the Umlaut ä on a smart phone !

Well the other day, suddenly, don’t ask me why, I figured out how to do it !

So I texted Kleiner Bär using the Umlaut ä and Claudia just howled with glee. Texting me back saying that it had taken her some time to figure this same issue out. 

Now maybe, just maybe, YOU reading along here will get something from this.

Please note : we have Android NOT iphone smart phones.

See my smart phone in the below photo .. the stylus is on the letter a.

You press down, and you hold the letter a. Up pops a mini-menu with (in this case) eight options for the letter a. Then you select the ä and in the below photo there it is in your message along with Umlauts ü and ö .

You should just see the array of special symbols associated with some of the other letters on your smart phone !

I get a lot of joy out of such discoveries. They help my mood a lot.

– – – – – – – – 

Spring contines to spring up here. Will all of you just look at the green grass yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon.

Oh My, the roads are a wet mess. You must constantly use your windshield washer fluid to keep your visibility clear.

That will be that .. We’re having fun and hope you too are.

Cap and Patti

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