Re: CHAT: C in Greek Alphabet

RAB = Ray
RAB> At one time in English (and other national forms of the Roman
RAB> alphabet)

Including German - the modern calculus integral symbol is a stylized
long s, short for Latin "summa" the way Leibniz wrote it...

RAB> handwriting and printing there were different symbols for
RAB> final & non-final lower-case S (the non-final ones looking very
RAB> similar to _f_ in print)

Famous exemplars being the US Constitution ("Congrefs") and
Declaration of Independence, which indicates that the usage was more
complex than a simple final/non-final choice.  "When in the course of
human events" - the "s" in "course" is short.   Anywhere there's a
double-S, the first is long and the second short: "necefsary",
"difsolve", etc.

RAB> but that practice has long been abandoned....

It was no longer the rule by the Victorian era - IIRC, the use of the
long S was a minor plot point in one of Doyle's Holmes stories, used
to date a document...

CC = Charlie
CC> I remember, when learning cursive decades ago, that the final 't' had
CC> a different form than the initial/medial 't.'  It didn't have to be
CC> crossed.  On those extremely rare occasions when I write in cursive
CC> nowadays, I still use that form.

Uncrossed final t - I haven't seen that.  I would probably take it for
a simplified l.


--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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