German ß (scharfes S)

[mcbishop]

How is it pronounced?

the same as "ss" (like in Essex, I guess) ... it's the vowel before that is pronounced other
Straße has a long "a" ... Strasse, (which is wrong) would have a short "a"

I quite like the idea of the concept of Eßex ;-) Difficult to fathom the reasoning behind Rißtissen, though, although I did hear that place names were an exception to the rule(s).

Mike Bishop