Talk:Long s/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions about Long s. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

Macintosh Keyboard

"On the Apple Macintosh operating system it can by typed by pressing the [Option] key then typing B or b."

This seems to be wrong. Option-b brings up the integral symbol, not the long s. – 84.178.114.236 12:42, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

That IS the medial S... 68.39.174.238 03:42, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

No, it's not. They are different characters in Unicode.--Prosfilaes 21:40, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

You mean preſsing..? ;) --Thorri 14:50, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Nope. Preſſing is correct. Angr/talk 15:59, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Correct by what ſtandard? I've ſeen both in works publiſhed in pre-1800 Engliſh.--Prosfilaes 21:40, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I thought it was "preßing" Isn't the "ß" a compound "ſs"? --mordicai. 01:31, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

The ß is a compound "ſs" like w is a compound vv (or uu). They may have originated as such a compound, but they are currently independent characters. If the font style in which you use an English long-s requires a ſs ligature, it should be provided for in the font just like an fi ligature, or an st ligature, or a ct ligature, would.--Prosfilaes 18:20, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Word compounds

It is important to note that many languages, especially germanic ones, make words by compounding shorter words and word fragments. When word a made is made from a part ending in s followed by another part, the compound word should still be written with a final s even though it is now inside a word. The correct use of long versus short s can make the structure clearer, and sometimes remove ambiguity. Therefore, I find the external article linked to extremely uninformative and poorely researched. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.69.113.22 (talk) 13:35, 2 February 2005‎ (UTC)

Why not name this page %c5%bf ?

I am confused as to why this page is named Long_s, and the page named ſ is the same as S. Shouldn't this page be renamed %c5%bf aka ſ, the connection between that name and S be removed? I guess maybe I just don't understand how wikimedia naming works. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.19.117.10 (talk) 22:10, 5 July 2005 (UTC)

cscibri 5 July 2005 22:14 (UTC)

The problem is that ſ is just a variant form of s. Hence its capital is simply 'S'. Since the Wikipedia forces all articles to start with a capital, there is no way to have this article reside at ſ. User:Anárion/sig 5 July 2005 22:24 (UTC)

I see... thanks for clearing that up. -- cscibri 6 July 2005 21:24 (UTC)

Yeſ, it ſhould be named that. I'll juſt change the redirect.-Monk e y 13 !!! 00:47, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

I can't. -Monk e y 13 !!! 00:47, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

See my poſt above. The capital for ſ is ſimply S, and all articles muſt ſtart with a capital in the Wiki. -- Jordi·✆ 07:54, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Why're you guys talkin with such lifps? 68.75.224.214 (talk) 15:29, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

IPA "sh" sound

Am I the only one that thinkſ that thiſ lookſ like the IPA "sh" sound?Cameron Nedland 15:37, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Just to tell you, you were using ſ in the wrong place. It should never be used at the end of a word, only in the middle or at the start Sotakeit 16:51, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
- Not true. ſaintlinſ useſ ſ at the beginning and the end. —MEſEDROCKER (talk) 20:07, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

- - What is ſaintlinſ? A word like uſes will use the normal s at the end of the word in every book I've ſeen printed with the long-s, which is probably approaching a hundred books.--Prosfilaes 05:33, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Is this funny??

I think this talk page looks funny! The Wikipedians who put messages on this talk page appear to want to use the long s in all their messages. Any other funny talk page to find?? Georgia guy 00:43, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

You ſinner! You broke the pattern! Why did you do this? —MEſEDROCKER (talk) 20:08, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Jeez, you ſcrewed up the pattern. Uſe ſhort ſ's ſomewhere elſe.Cameron Nedland 23:35, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Where the bee ſucks, there ſuck I;
In a cowſlip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After ſummer merrily.
--William Shakeſpeare

That's ſheer ſucking genius. —Nightst a llion (?) 22:49, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Descending?

Why is it called the "descending" s when it has an ascender but no descender? Acsenray 21:13, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

You also ſcrewed up the pattern! But I dont know why its called deſcending.Cameron Nedland 23:36, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Long s had a dethender to begin with, and during the medieval era thcribeth gradually thortened the dethender part until long s had no dethender to thpeak of. Descenderless long esess are an example of atrophied letter forms. Oh gee, now I've completely broken the pattern.

Arbo 21:30, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Triple ſ

How would you spell "brasssmith"? Would it be braſſſmith?Cameron Nedland 16:42, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Who knows? Given that users of this style varied between writing a medial ss as ſſ and ſs, I seriously doubt that there was a standard for the incredibly rare triple s.--Prosfilaes 18:09, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Seeing as "brasssmith" is a compound word, I would gueſs the common uſe to be braſsſmith (though of courſe I can't be certain). --Algorithm 01:49, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I think it'ſ braſſſmith. -Monk e y 13 !!! 20:22, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

FWIW, German orþography made -ßſ- (braßſmiþ) from every triple ſ. Wikipeditor 18:18, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

I for one ſuſpect that the word would have been ſplit and rendered as "braſs-ſmith". Cactus Wren 19:48, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

ſſſ or sss do not exiſt if you uſe ſ. 3 s are allways ſsſ. The right form is braſsſmith. 62.180.164.6 (talk) 13:02, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

There is a tendency to eliminate the unusual in practice.Such as hyphenation to eliminate the confluence of triple s words such as "Head mistressship", and several Scottish counties such as Rossshire, Invernessshire,etc. And in patronessship, goddessship, bossship, princessship, governessship,duchessship,countessship, postmistressshipm, waitressship, hostessship, etc. Or where hyphenation is not an option, to avoid the use of words such as Possessionlessness. Similarly with many other 'triple-letter' words;'frillless'looks odd and so is often hyphenated, and 'chaffinch' is always so spelt, never 'chafffinch' or chaff-finch'. 122.61.97.23 (talk) 02:08, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Thank you; your uncited anonymous opinion proves everything.--Prosfilaes (talk) 15:20, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

"brasssmith" would correctly be written "braſs-ſmith" or "braſs ſmith". Very occasionally you do find compound words with the first element ending in double-s and the second element beginning with s written as a single word (I suspect most cases are due to typesetters trying to save space), in which case the middle letter s is written short, e.g. Croſsſtitch and croſsſtaff, although "croſs-ſtitch" and "croſs-ſtaff" are far more common (Google Book Search finds one example of "croſsſtitch" but twenty of "croſs-ſtitch"). BabelStone (talk) 12:45, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

misuse of characters.

∫ (U+222b) is not the long s; it does not have the letter property in Unicode, and it doesn't change when the text is automatically uppercased. It is defined to be the integral symbol.--Prosfilaes 04:27, 3 June 2006 (UTC) ſſſ or sss do not exist if you use ſ. The right form is braſsſmith. 62.180.164.6 (talk) 12:58, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

May the ſ character bloſsom like the roſe

And, may the phyſical ſpacing of it one day improve. A very intereſting page with fine illuſstrations. CApitol3 12:39, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Sorry for the nitpicking, but it ſhould be "bloſſom". "-om" is not a ſeparate part of a compound.--2001:A60:15A3:2A01:ECAC:DD44:1B67:5A21 (talk) 01:44, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Depends on which usage you are trying to go for. By the mid- to late 19th-century, the use of the long s singly had all but died out, so that even in handwriting it would only be poſsible to find it as the first in a sequence of two eſses – in which case it did not actually matter all that much if they occurred at compound boundaries. (Also, I find this more restricted usage leſs annoying to read, which means I can actually have some anachronistic fun using it in writing; it also means I don't need to edit my signature every single time I post here.) Double sharp (talk) 12:59, 5 November 2016 (UTC)