Kölsch Alphabet & Letters (Colognian)

Kölsch (in English also Colognian) is the language of Cologne, which its speakers call Kölle. It belongs to the Ripuarian dialects of the Rhineland and is written with the Latin alphabet exactly as German is: the 26 letters A a to Z z, the umlauts ä, ö and ü, and the sharp s ß. Song lyrics, carnival programmes, pub chalkboards, street signs and the books of the Akademie för uns kölsche Sproch, the city's institute for the language, are all written with these letters.

What makes written Kölsch look different from German is how the letters are used. Long vowels are often written double: Ääd (earth), Strooß (street), Alaaf, the carnival cheer. A g at the start of a syllable is very often spoken and written j: jot (good), jejange (gone), Jeck (a carnival fool). Where German has n after a long vowel, Kölsch often has ng: Rhing for the Rhine, Wing for wine. And the small words are short and everywhere: et (it, the), nit (not), fott (away), kütt (comes).

The umlauts work as in German. ö is the vowel of Kölle and of the word Kölsch itself, ä is an open e sound (hätt, has; Ääd), and ü is a rounded i (kütt, Bützje, a kiss). ß follows a long vowel, as in Strooß and Strüßje, the little bouquet thrown from carnival floats; it never starts a word, so an initial capital is unnecessary; German also permits uppercase ẞ in all-caps text.

The rarer letters å, æ, ë, ė, œ and ů

Unicode's CLDR, a database of locale data, lists six additional characters in Colognian's main-letter set: å, æ, ë, ė, œ and ů. The CLDR entry does not specify their Kölsch pronunciations or connect them with particular vowel contrasts. Treat them as optional extras: everyday Kölsch can be written without them.

Everyday Kölsch writing gets by with ä, ö, ü and ß, so a carnival song sheet, a menu in a brewpub or a message between friends will seldom need them. All twelve are on this page so that any Colognian text can be copied and typed correctly; ů is the same letter Czech uses, and å, æ and œ are the letters of Scandinavian and French.

Kölsch quotation marks and the apostrophe

Kölsch follows German punctuation. Quotations open low and close high: „Kölle Alaaf!“, with ‚…‘ for a quote inside a quote. Books sometimes use the inward-pointing guillemets »…« instead, as German printing does.

The apostrophe ’ is the busiest mark in written Kölsch, because the dialect clips its little words. The article der becomes d’r, as in the Bläck Fööss song title Mer losse d’r Dom en Kölle (we leave the cathedral in Cologne), and you will see forms like en d’r Weetschaff (in the pub). The typographic apostrophe ’ looks best; the straight ' from the keyboard is accepted everywhere.

How to type Kölsch letters on a keyboard

A German QWERTZ keyboard has keys for ä, ö, ü and ß, which covers everyday Kölsch. On an English keyboard on Windows, hold Alt and type on the number pad: Alt+0228 ä, Alt+0246 ö, Alt+0252 ü, Alt+0196 Ä, Alt+0214 Ö, Alt+0220 Ü, Alt+0223 ß, Alt+0132 „, Alt+0147 “, Alt+0146 ’ and Alt+0128 €. The rarer letters have codes too: Alt+0229 å, Alt+0197 Å, Alt+0230 æ, Alt+0198 Æ, Alt+0235 ë, Alt+0203 Ë, Alt+0156 œ and Alt+0140 Œ. With the US-International layout, press " and then a, o, u or e for the umlauts.

On a Mac with the US layout, press Option+U and then the vowel for ä ö ü ë, Option+S for ß, Option+A for å, Option+' for æ, Option+Q for œ, and Option+Shift+W for „. ė and ů have no Alt code or Option key: on a phone, hold down e or u and slide to them where your keyboard offers them, add a Lithuanian keyboard (ė) or a Czech one (ů), or copy them from this page. In HTML write ä ö ü ß „ “, and ė for ė and ů for ů.

Where Kölsch is spoken, and its currency

Kölsch is the language of Cologne and the towns around it in Germany 🇩🇪. CLDR puts Colognian speakers at about 0.3% of Germany's population, roughly 250,000 people; any count is rough, because many people in Cologne understand Kölsch, sing it at carnival and drop its words into their German without speaking it all day. Its liveliest home is music: bands such as the Bläck Fööss, the Höhner, BAP and Brings sing in Kölsch, and their songs are known by heart in every pub during carnival.

Kölsch is one of the Ripuarian dialects, which are spoken from Bonn and Aachen to the Dutch town of Kerkrade. Its neighbours and relatives have collections here too: German, the standard language of the Rhineland; Luxembourgish, a Franconian cousin a little further south; Limburgish and Dutch to the west; and Low German to the north. For the country's own emoji, see the Germany collection. Cologne pays in euros, written with the euro sign €.

Kölsch in emoji: carnival, beer and the Dom

Cologne's carnival, Fastelovend, is where Kölsch is loudest. The season opens on 11 November at 11:11 🕚, the street carnival runs from Weiberfastnacht to Rosenmontag, and the cheer is always Kölle Alaaf! 🎭🤡. From the floats come Kamelle 🍬 (sweets) and Strüßjer 💐 (little bouquets), and on the street a Bützje 💋, a friendly kiss, is part of the fun.

Kölsch is also the name of the city's beer 🍺, served in narrow 0.2-litre glasses called Stangen by a waiter called the Köbes; that double meaning gave Kölsch its reputation as the only language you can drink. The Dom ⛪, Cologne Cathedral, stands for the city in songs and messages; the three crowns 👑 in the city's coat of arms stand for the Three Kings whose shrine is in the cathedral; and the goat 🐐 is Hennes, the mascot of the football club 1. FC Köln ⚽.