Unicode theoretically provides a solution, but recommends it only for highly specialized applications. As a result, there was no way to differentiate between the different characters.
#HOW TO MAKE CAPITAL A WITH UMLAUT ISO#
Since they looked near-identical the two glyphs were combined, which was also done in computer character encodings such as ISO 8859-1. In modern typography there was insufficient space on typewriters and later computer keyboards to allow for both A-diaeresis (also representing Ä) and A-umlaut. The Æ ligature was also common in Old English, but had largely disappeared in Middle English. Æ, a highly similar ligature evolving from the same origin as Ä, evolved in the Icelandic, Danish and Norwegian alphabets. In most later handwritings these bars in turn nearly became dots. A-umlaut was written as an A with a small e written above (Aͤ aͤ): this minute e degenerated to two vertical bars in medieval handwriting Historically A-diaeresis was written as an A with two dots above the letter. Johann Martin Schleyer proposed alternate forms for Ä and ä ( Ꞛ and ꞛ, respectively) in Volapük but they were rarely used.
In Emilian-Romagnol ä is used to represent, occurring in some Emilian dialects, e.g. The letter is also used in some Romani alphabets. Estonian gained the letter through high and extensive exposure to German, with Low German throughout centuries of effective Baltic German rule, and to Swedish, during the 160 years of Estonia as a part of the Swedish Empire until 1721. Although the phenomenon of Germanic umlaut does not exist in Finnish, the phoneme /æ/ does. In the Icelandic, Faroese, Danish and Norwegian alphabets, " Æ" is still used instead of Ä.įinnish adopted the Swedish alphabet during the 700 years that Finland was part of Sweden. The letter Ä arose in German and later in Swedish from originally writing the E in AE on top of the A, which with time became simplified as two dots. In the Nordic countries, the vowel sound was originally written as " Æ" when Christianisation caused the former Vikings to start using the Latin alphabet around A.D.
The sign at the bus station of the Finnish town Mynämäki, illustrating an artistic variation of the letter Ä.