:o)

Ö

Beautiful, and all this time I thought HN didn't render emojis

That's an uppercase O with an umlaut on it. I type this with 'option u shift o'.

For example - https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara

    Sahara (arabiska: الصحراء الكبرى, aṣ-ṣaḥrā' al-kubra, "Den största öknen")

You'll note the öknen there and if it was capitalized you'd have Öknen.

=)

in the German speaking sphere we used to use ggg to mean laughing, and the more g-s, the harder you were laughing

It comes from grins translating to “grinning”. My generation grew up with ICQ which had smileys. This thing with writing g was more common in online communities like online games and chatrooms and was more an internet subculture thing than mainstream knowledge along my peers.

Huh, never noticed that (British living in Berlin), but good to know. Thanks for the info! :)