Ø

ø (Unicode U+00F8, HTML: ø, or ø) and Ø (U+00D8, Ø Ø)

In Modern Literal Taiwanese, this letter may be used for the sound written in TMSS as an o with a backslash. For example, øar (oyster), ørgiøo (jelly fig), and Ørtoaxlixaf (Australia) are all written with ø. To reduce the need for ø, "øe" is usually substituted with "oe".

Computer Input

• In MS Word, the ø can be typed with the following keystroke: ^/o (Ctrl+Slash+o). This means hold Ctrl, press Slash, then press o.
• In Mozilla Firefox with the abcTajpu plugin, one can input this by typing o, /, then Insert.
• On Microsoft Windows, using the "United States-International" keyboard setting, it can be typed by holding down the "Alt-Gr" (right Alt) key and pressing "L".
• It can be input on Mac by holding the "Option" key while pressing o (or O).

One disadvantage to using ø is that it is not included in the ASCII seven-bit character set. However, it is in the ISO 8859-1 eight-bit character set as hex number F8. In Unicode it is also F8 but in UTF-8, it is encoded as hex C3B8.

ø is also not within the big5 code table. However, the Greek letters are encoded in big5 (range 0xA344 to 0xA373); a Greek letter could be used instead.

History in Written Taiwanese

Taiwanese Modern Spelling System originally prescribed two special characters: the Greek letter Nu (letter) and an o crossed by a backslash. In Modern Literal Taiwanese, ø came into use.

Modern Taiwanese Language (MTL) uses Q in place of ø. Usually the Q is made smaller font size. However, "html small" formatting makes the word incompatible with FireDictionary.

The "Ø" (minuscule: "ø") is a vowel and a letter used in the Danish, Faeroese and Norwegian languages.

Ø is a piece of land in the valley of the Nørreå in the eastern part of Jutland, Denmark. Its name means island (ø in Danish language) and probably comes from the island-like approach to this piece of land, although it is completely landlocked and surrounded by meadows.

See also

• Ø at Wikipedia
• Ö at Wikipedia