Final s

The difference between circuit-s and long s can carry meaning: wax tube with final s, wax-house- with long s, in fracture set

Capital S, long s and final s in the German Kurrent script

Script example “Kurz iſt das Leben”: Long s and final s in current script from the early 19th century

The final-s, final-s, round s or ring-s is a typographical variant of the letter s - or linguistically speaking: It is a positional allographic variant of the character ( grapheme ) s . It is used in some broken scripts to mark the end of a syllable ( final ), while a long s is placed within a syllable ( initial ) or at the beginning of a syllable ( initial ) . The distinction between a long s and a final s also exists in cursive scripts such as the German Kurrent script .

Because in German phoneme s never word-final voiced is pronounced, the circuit's always stands for a voiceless ( "Sharp") s ( / ⁠ s ⁠ / ). Due to its graphic shape, the final s is also called a “round s”, in contrast to the shape of the “long s”.

There is a similar rule in the Greek script : At the beginning of a word or within a word (also at the beginning of a syllable!) Σ is written, at the end of a word (but not at the end of a syllable within a word) ς - here one could speak of the final sigma . Example: Κολο σσ ό ς Ῥόδἱο ς Kolossós Rhódios 'Colossus of Rhodes'.

More detailed explanations of the history of the various forms of the small s can be found in the articles s and long s .

orthography

Detail of a field post-letter Kurrent "There s i s not far from t Heydekrug."

The final s is used in the following cases:

• at the end of a word (. eg because s Hau s , de s way s )
• in compound words before the otherwise self-employed sub-word (. B. Egg z s run, Gla s door)
• before a suffix beginning with a consonant (e.g. Mäu s chen, Wei s nheit)
• (eg. De with the prefixes of the or dis s infection, di s tribution)
• at the end of the syllable before the letters k, m, n, w or d (e.g. Dre s den, O s wald)
• if a word ends in -sk (e.g. grote s k, brü s k)

The long s, on the other hand, is used in the following cases:

• at the beginning or inside of a syllable (e.g. ſonſt, Maſuren)
• at the end of a syllable, if none of the rules for the final s apply (e.g. Waſſer, Gaſſe)
• in the case of omissions (e.g. I laſſ ')
• for the phonetic connections ſch, ſt and ſp (e.g. Knoſpe, löſchen)

Final-s and ß

The theory of typographer Jan Tschichold that the fracture ß to ss - ligature back, has become widespread since the 1940s. Together with the ligature ß (“SZ”, spoken: Eszett ) there would be two letters for the s in the broken fonts. In today's antiqua typefaces, the long s is usually replaced by a round s and the combination of both ( ſs ) is usually replaced by a ß . It was not until the 19th century that an antiqua counterpart was designed for the German eszett of broken fonts. In contrast, there is a ss much older citations ligature. The exact relationship of the Antiqua-ß to Eszett and ſs -Ligatur is controversial.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German Kurrentschrift. Retrieved March 18, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Max Bollwage: Is the Eszett a Latin guest worker? Typographer's guesswork . In: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch , Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-7755-1999-8 , pp. 35–41.
3. ^ Herbert E. Brekle: On the handwritten and typographical history of the letter ligature ß from Gothic-German and humanistic-Italian contexts . In: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch , Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-7755-2001-5 , pp. 67-76 ( online ( memento of the original from December 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )