Long s

[George Thompson]

> With early 18th-century types and ink and smudged, faded, etc.
> originals, it's difficult for even humans to distinguish.  (Whether
> or not the crossbar actually is present on the left side of the
> vertical can be mysterious.)

It's true -- I was being unkind.

I have spells like that, sometimes.  Just last week I was unkind to the OED.

A shame, really.  When I'm myself, I'm a sweetheart.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
Date: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 3:38 pm
Subject: Re: Long s
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> At 8/11/2010 10:52 AM, George Thompson wrote:
> >Even the dimmest-witted OCR should know the difference, because in a
> >"f" (in type, anyway) the little cross-piece appears on both sides
> >of the upright, whereas in the "long s" it sticks out only from the
> right side.
>
> With early 18th-century types and ink and smudged, faded, etc.
> originals, it's difficult for even humans to distinguish.  (Whether
> or not the crossbar actually is present on the left side of the
> vertical can be mysterious.)  And humans can use context and our
> knowledge of what are not real words.
>
> >I dimly recall that the "long s" is only used in certain
> >environments and never in others.  It seems never to appear at the
> >end of a word, for instance (never "catf and dogf".)  When 2 "s"s
> >appear in the middle of the word, I believe the first will be a
> >"long s", the second a standard s (for instance, "tofsed").
>
> True.  Elsewhere the long s appears.
>
> >Most of my reading is in the post-"long s" era; Joel should have a
> >better sense of these patterns.
>
> I have been surprised to see the long s persisting in some printed
> books from the first half of the 19th century.
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org