Re: Latin mxedruli, or do we really need capital and small letters?

Andreas Johansson wrote:

>Quoting "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:
>
>
>
>>John Cowan slapronten:
>>
>>
>>>Ray Brown scripsit:
>>>
>>>
>>>>>>On the other hand, I have seen Greek texts printed with just a single
>>>>>>form
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>I meant to finish the sentence thus: "...which is similar to our
>>>>lower-case c."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>That's the lunate sigma.  It was commonly used in Byzantine days, and
>>>is still used when transcribing Byzantine manuscripts.
>>>
>>>
>>My understanding is that it's very, very old, as well.  Supposedly,
>>the Latin <S> derives from a lunate sigma with a small tail.
>>
>>
>
>The version of final sigma I'm used to seeing looks like a Latin 's', except
>that the upper curl is bigger than the lower one, and that the lower one extends
>below the base line. I had always assumed it was the origin of Latin 's' ...
>
>
I thought that too.  But where does the 'long s' come from? It doesn't
much resemble the non-final sigma..