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“Why Does S Look Like F?”: A Guide to Reading Very Old Books (2013)

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Re: “Why Does S Look Like F?”: A Guide to Reading Very Old Books (2013)

#21
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that was addressed by the author: '... the long S is that it occurs only in the middle of words, never at the beginning or end.'

"I ſleep, ſing and dance, and ſometimes ..." My only problem with this article. The image contradicts what was written shortly thereafter, without explanation.

That small slip annoyed me too. Long s does not appear at the end of words or in capital letters (at least not that I can currently recall), which is why it would not appear in the title (the capital letter of "School" or the word-end form in "Venus"), but I believe it is the standard form at the start of words.

Re: “Why Does S Look Like F?”: A Guide to Reading Very Old Books (2013)

#22
I've always read it as F. How can you rule out the possibility that, before certain advances in dental technology [1], most people spoke with a lisp, so what you read is what would have actually been said? It's not like there are recordings or standardized international phonetic alphabets to record the sounds represented by the letters.

[1] I seem to remember George Washington's dentures a technological marvel of his day, or something.

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