A 07:54 97-08-15 -0700, Marc Wilhelm Kuester a �crit :
>Hi,
>
>Your [Timothy Partridge's] assumption is correct. ? (sharp s, U+00DF) was
>originally a ligature
>between the long s (U+017F) and the normal s. In gothic script (=
> Fraktur) the 'round' s (U+0073) was used at the end of syllables, long s
>within.
>Double s are frequent in German, and the collision between U+017F and
>U+0073 resulted in the ligature "sharp s" .
>[...]
> With the de facto dissappearance of the gothic script from day to day
>use in the thirties, the long s and with it the perception of sharp s as
>a ligature has all but vanished. The great majority of Germans would not
>even know it was one --- as, by the way, the umlauts which were
>originally only ligatures for ae, oe and ue, respectively. Now, these are
>in most contexts perceived as normal characters like A-Z.
[Alain] :
Interestingly enough, in old French writings, the � (long s) ligature is
omnipresent. In Canadian archives, we have pritings from Samuel the
Champlain (XVIIth Century), where, for example, he writes "avec ce qui
s'est pa�� ["pass�"] en ladite Nouvelle France en l'ann�e 1631" and
"stipulez [sic] by Me�ire ["Messire"] Iean Iacques Dolu..." (in passing the
"j", or "consonant i" as they called it, did not yet have a graphic form at
this time).
The � is also present as late as the end of the XVIIIth Century in the
"D�claration universelle des droits de l'homme" (1789):
"Tout homme �tant pr�sum� innocent jusqu'� ce qu'il ait �t� d�clar�
coupable s'il est jug� indispensable de l'arr�ter toute rigueur qui ne
seroit [sic] pas n�ce�aire ["n�cessaire"] pour s'a�urer ["s'assurer"] de sa
personne doit �tre s�v�rement [sic] r�prim�e par la loi".
All this has also been forgotten by most French speakers nowadays.
I documented this (full extracts and sources) in an informative annex of
standard CAN/CSA Z243.4.1.
Alain LaBont�
Qu�bec
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