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Reading the wiki page, I still don't get why this long S entered usage at all. The article mostly talks about the rules for usage and how it gradually phased o

Reading the wiki page, I still don't get why this long S entered usage at all. The article mostly talks about the rules for usage and how it gradually phased out. What was the purpose or reason for it appearing to begin with? Were words with double-ss needing some typographic distinguishing? What warranted a new character that broke through the normal height of lower case letters, when regular s was doing just fine? And why only one of the S's in a pair? Puzzling.

nibix 4y ago
I can only speak for the use in the German language: The German language allows you to compose several words into one long word, which is no longer structured by spaces. This can lead to ambiguities, especially where a sub-word ends with an S. Due to the rule that words always end with a round S, these ambiguities were resolved. Examples from German wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langes_s https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langes_s Kreiſchen (Krei·schen, shouting) vs Kreischen (Kreis·chen, a small circle) Verſendung (Ver·sen·dung, posting) und Versendung (Vers·en·dung, end of a verse)
zero_shift 4y ago
Long-s predates short-s. It entered usage because we needed a lower case S when Carolingian monks first developed cased letters in the eighth century, and the Romans already had a similar shape (the "medial S"). For a long time "S" was only used in the capital form; small "s" came later. Here's what Carolingian miniscule looked like, note the r-like s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carolineminuscel.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carolineminuscel.jpg And here's Old Roman cursive for comparison: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/CursivasRomanas.png/1200px-CursivasRomanas.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Cu... Small-s starts taking off around the 12th century or so, coexists with long-s for a while, before eventually replacing it.
- supernova87a 4y ago
  Thanks, interesting! That Carolingian script really has a lot of characters that can be easily confused, or relies on very subtle differences. b vs. h, i vs. j, i vs. l, r/s/t.

nibix 4y ago

I can only speak for the use in the German language: The German language allows you to compose several words into one long word, which is no longer structured by spaces. This can lead to ambiguities, especially where a sub-word ends with an S. Due to the rule that words always end with a round S, these ambiguities were resolved. Examples from German wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langes_s https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langes_s Kreiſchen (Krei·schen, shouting) vs Kreischen (Kreis·chen, a small circle) Verſendung (Ver·sen·dung, posting) und Versendung (Vers·en·dung, end of a verse)

zero_shift 4y ago

Long-s predates short-s. It entered usage because we needed a lower case S when Carolingian monks first developed cased letters in the eighth century, and the Romans already had a similar shape (the "medial S"). For a long time "S" was only used in the capital form; small "s" came later. Here's what Carolingian miniscule looked like, note the r-like s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carolineminuscel.jpg https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carolineminuscel.jpg And here's Old Roman cursive for comparison: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/CursivasRomanas.png/1200px-CursivasRomanas.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Cu... Small-s starts taking off around the 12th century or so, coexists with long-s for a while, before eventually replacing it.

supernova87a 4y ago
Thanks, interesting! That Carolingian script really has a lot of characters that can be easily confused, or relies on very subtle differences. b vs. h, i vs. j, i vs. l, r/s/t.