Talk:Ä

Use in the 16th century in German

This seems to describe that the ä or some form of it, such as with the little e above the letter, has always been in use and distinguished in writing from e, however the texts I have read from the 16th. century all seem to use e instead of ä. In fact it doesn't seem that the letter ä existed at all, at least in the few things I've read from that century. I'm not sure whether the e would be considered an obsolete form of this letter then, which is why I didn't add that now, but this should be clarified and explained in the article. Eric Schiefelbein (talk) 08:43, 7 April 2023 (UTC)

It is a mystery to me how you gathered this from the text when it says exactly the opposite: "From Alemannic Middle High German aͤ, a representation of secondary umlaut [æ]. In Early Modern German, the letter spread to Central German." So this passage (which was already the same in April 2023) clearly states that in Middle High German the letter was restricted to Alemannic and that it spread northward only in Early Modern German, i.e. the 15th to 17th centuries. -- By the 16th century usage was mixed. I think that aͤ was already predominant, but you're right that e was still widely used. 90.186.83.227 21:51, 2 April 2024 (UTC)