Anyone can learn Fraktur
If you are like most English speakers, whenever you see the {Fraktur} marking added to the title of a book, you immediately move on to a different book. It is possible however to proofread a book in Fraktur even without a knowledge of the German language. (Admittedly, when there is a question which arises due to poor print quality or unclear scans, a basic knowledge of German does come in handy.)
If you want to try your hand at PR'ing a book in Fraktur, choose one with a good print and scan quality. If it turns out to be too difficult, you can always return the page to the round unchanged. At least you will have tried :-)
To start you off, first try slowly reading the following English texts written in Fraktur. Pay special attention to the letters which are not obvious and then check out the notes below for some helpful hints.
Many of the letter are similar enough to the Latin script that you should be able to easily read them. Notice however, that the long-s (star, so), the k (twinkle, like) and the y (you) are quite different.
The word sky at the end of the fourth line contains all three of these letters. Without the context, it would be very difficult to guess what that word is.
This should have been easier, since you have already run across the most difficult letters to recognize. Did you notice the round-s (mistakenly, believes)? There are complicated rules about when a long-s and a round-s are used, none of which are of interest to us as proofreaders. We just need to recognize both as “s.”
Notice that the word, “trespasses” uses 3 different forms of “s.” The long-s, the double-s and the round-s. Also notice the difference between the “f” and long-s. I’ll explain more about the s's below.
Notice the dashes which are always double in Fraktur. The same dash is used when hyphenating words at the end of a line or page. (Why this somewhat terrifying rhyme is sung to children is a question I will leave for others to explain.)
The first line shows the importance of noticing the difference between f & the long-s. (Humpty Dumpty did not fat on a wall). Also notice the use of both the long-s and the round-s in horses.
The Alphabet
The capitals I and J look the same, with the J sometimes being larger. You will not see a J followed by a consonant, like Jch, so you can be sure it is an I and not a J.
Ligatures
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tz |
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ch |
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ck |
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st |
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ss |
The double s (ß in modern German) is called an "eszett."
Umlauts
The dots above the vowels, a, o and u, modify the sound of the vowel. In Fraktur a small e above the vowel is more commonly seen than the two dots.
Lowercase
Uppercase
In Fraktur, the capital A,O and U do not have umlauts, but are instead written as Ae, Oe and Ue. In modern German the Umlauted letters are: Ä ä Ö ö Ü ü
Letters that can easily be confused
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f & s | The crossbar on the letter f is on both sides. For the s it is only on the left. |
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ss & tz | OCR software often has a problem distinguishing between these, so pay special attention. |
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ch & ck | Often the ck is incorrectly OCR'ed as a d. |
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f & k | If the "head" is unclear, then notice that the "tail" of the s drops below the line of print. |
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h & y | |
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r & x | |
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B & V | |
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O & Q |