Re: Long-s and final-s, U+017F (was: Re: Mixed up priorities)

From: Otfried Cheong (otfried@cs.ust.hk)
Date: Sun Oct 24 1999 - 05:25:21 EDT

> > Long-s versus ordinary s is exactly the same distinction as KAF versus
> > FINAL KAF, TSADI versus FINAL TSADI, etc. in Hebrew, ...
>
> No. This applies for the English use (of former centuries), but not for the
> German use. In scripts which distinguish between long-s and round-s
> (especially Fraktur), this is done on grammatical criterions. Within words,
> you find round-s as well as long-s. At the end of words, you can even find a
> long-s after the spelling reform of 1998 (if there is a sequence of two
> sīs). Itīs ugly but true. Refer to Duden, Die deutsche Rechtschreibung, 21nd
> edition, p. 71.

Are you serious? The 1998 Duden still has rules for round-s versus
long-s? I don't think I've seen anything printed in German in the
last fifty years using long-s.

I've read quite a few books written in German Fraktur, and it was my
impression that round-s is used in syllable-final position. Of
course, I never had to learn the rules :-) Can you explain what the
"grammatical criterions" are? I unfortunately do not have access to
the Duden here.

Otfried

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