3 ms·
I'm not sure whether you're aware of this, but many older scripts, including all of the Semitic scripts, actually write letters entirely differently when they a
by gecko 17y ago
I'm not sure whether you're aware of this, but many older scripts, including all of the Semitic scripts, actually write letters entirely differently when they appear at the end of a word. Given that the monks who began employing majuscule and minuscule would surely have been familiar with Hebrew script, I'm hardly surprised they initially went to making the last letter significant instead of the first.
- skoob 17y agoThat also true for the long s (ſ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s -- it's only used at the start or in the middle of words. The same is true for sigma, σ is used in the start and middle of words, while ς is used in the end of words.
- kingkilr 17y agoNot all Hebrew letters are different when they appear at the end of a word, just 4 out of 22 letters (if I remember correctly) do.
- maw 17y agoIt's true of Arabic, though; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet#Primary_letters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet#Primary_letters.