O, the Sütterlin letter o

History

The letter O is the 15th letter of the German alphabet. Phonetically, it represents a back rounded vowel, pronounced as close-mid /oː/ in words like 'Sohn' and open-mid /ɔ/ in words like 'Ort'.

Sütterlin lowercase o is a neat, upright circle occupying the middle zone with a small exit hook at the top right. Capital O is a large, upright circle drawn with a smooth monoline stroke.

The letter o appears in essential genealogical records in words such as 'Ort' (place), 'Oheim' (uncle), 'Ost' (east), and baptismal terms. When modified with an umlaut (ö), older manuscripts often write a tiny superscript e above the o.

O began as the sign for an eye,^[1] and already in the Phoenician alphabet the eye had become a circle.^[2] Its Phoenician sound was a consonant that German does not have;^[3] the Greeks did not use that sound either, and took the letter for the vowel o instead.^[4] In the Sütterlin model the umlaut mark over ö is shaped like the letter e.^[5]