Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!cornellcs!newsstand.cit.cornell.edu!portc01.blue.aol.com!portc02.blue.aol.com!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.net.uk!nntpfeed.doc.ic.ac.uk!sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk!warwick!bris.ac.uk!not-for-mail
From: comm@zeus.bris.ac.uk (M. Murray)
Subject: Re: Email foreign language letters
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: zeus.bris.ac.uk
Message-ID: <E2K2KM.3ux@fsa.bris.ac.uk>
Sender: usenet@fsa.bris.ac.uk (Usenet)
Organization: University of Bristol, England
X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0]
References: <32ACA850.5B03@admin.gmcc.ab.ca>
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 11:29:10 GMT
Lines: 28

Dietlind Kauer-B. (kauer-bd@admin.gmcc.ab.ca) wrote:
: When writing in French, Spanish, Italian, or German via e-mail,
: I always find it strange to do so without using the appropriate accents
: or special letters unique to that language. I know how to do so in
: various wordprocessing applications, but not in e-mail
: 
: I have heard that this is possible, but I am not sure how to do this.
: 
: Any ideas?
: 
: Please respond ASAP, as an important document must be sent to Germany
: tomorrow. Thank you for your help in advance.
: 
: from the cold north called Canada,

Depends on how you access e-mail. Even if you can enter umlauts in your
text, the next problem is that various e-mail routes may only be 7-bit, so
you can't rely on the 8-bit codes needed for umlauts etc. getting through. 

The safest way is to replace all umlauts by obscure letter combinations, 
e.g.  by aqz. Then tell the recipient to do a global replace of aqz by 
. Very much depends on your relationship with the recipient! 

Don't be tempted to replace  by ae. There are genuine occurences of ae 
in German, so a global replacement may not be appropriate.

-- 
Martin Murray :: School of Chemistry, Bristol University, BS8 1TS, England
