this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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chapotraphouse
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It’s the long s, an alternate graph, or ſhape, of the letter s. Much like Greek, with its two forms of the letter Sigma (as ſeen in, for example, the name Ὀδυσσεύς (Odyſſeus) with the variants σ medially and ς finally, the long s is uſed in the Latin alphabet in about the ſame way. Hiſtorically, moſt languages written in the Latin alphabet uſed it ; in Engliſh, it ſtarted to fall out of common uſe throughout the 19th century, but did ſee ſome continued uſe by antiquarians, reprints, ſtyliſtick endeavours, and hiſtorical works, as well as to affect or maintain an older ſtyle or air in printing or writing ; ſome people, myſelf included, ſtill uſe it even now. I conſider it to be a form of living hiſtory, with ſome potential benefits to readability once one is familiar with it.
s: completely unique and distinct, absolutely dissimilar to every single other letter
ſ: easily confused for an f, I, l, i, t, or j.
I'm not sure I understand the benefit.
People read by the overall ſhape of words, and given that the long s is an aſcending letter, it gives words a much more varied ſhape than the evenneſs of only uſing the round s, which aids in reading at a glance or taking in lines of text at a time ; and while it is anecdotal, I’ve been told that it helps ſome people with certain reading difficulties ſuch as dyſlexia becauſe of that more varied appearance it gives words and lines. Furthermore, while it doeſn’t really apply to Engliſh, ſome languages uſe word-compound or ſyllable-baſed rules for the long s (an example being German), which can actually help tell ſome words apart from each other ; for example, wachſtube and wachstube (guardhouſe vs tube of wax) or Kreiſchen and Kreischen (ſcream vs ſmall circle) can be eaſily diſtinguiſhed from each other even without context with the long s where they would need more context without.
The german rules around the long-s, like most rules involving german language, are needlessly complex though and I'm pretty sure the complexity is by design to gate-keep and distinguish the educated from the lower class. Your examples are the ones that make sense, but some others are rather exemplary for the average german desire to feel superior by following the most rules (and all of their exceptions) possible.
On another note how do you type the long-s?
I don’t think that that’s true about the German language or people, and could perhaps benefit from more critical material analyſis and inveſtigation regarding the place and function of thoſe rules relative to the language.
As for how I type the long s, I perſonally uſe a keyboard layout of mine own deſign, which can be ſeen in the attached image. I alſo have a keyboard layout for Android, and although I perſonally uſe Linux, I have alſo made a few ſcript-baſed ways of typing it for Windows including an entirely automated ſolution to help people who would want to incorporate it into their own orthography.
Love this layout. I have the open and close ([{< on the same key like you! I don't know why that wasn't the default from the start.
You even have the different dashes bound. Be still my heart!
I don't know if I agree either but I love the energy.