Otto Stolz wrote:
> Part of the story behind the Long S is that, in German hand-writing
> (Deutsche Schreibschrift) and blackletter printing (Fraktur), both
> Long S and Round S are used distinctively. In the 1st half of the
> century, this distinction was occasionally made even in roman printing
> (I have a faksimile of a 1916 German song book with this feature).
I have a set of post-World War I (1922) German 100-mark notes printed in
a roman typeface, which also demonstrate the use of long s. The notes
contain long explanations of the method of redemption. I found several
instances of round s (end of syllable) followed by long s (start of next
syllable), as Otto mentioned, but interestingly I also found the word
"dessen" spelled with two long s's (de\u017f\u017fen).
Otto, is this the typographical form that became ß (sharp s)? And what
is the relation, if any, between words that are spelled with ß instead
of ss and those that would have been spelled with long s instead of
round s? I was under the impression that ß was originally a ligature of
long s-short s.
The use of long s in English printing seems quite different from the
German usage. Long s was used in all positions except at the end of a
word, regardless of the etymology or "compoundness" of the word.
-Doug
(Sorry, my e-mail software doesn't yet support UTF-8.)
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