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Does anyone know why 'ss' was written as 'fs' ?

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Sue

Sue Report 28 Aug 2007 20:13

T,

Sadly no-one told my lot that it wasn't fashionable to use fs as it is in most of my documents from late 1700's through to late 1800's. It makes reading a pain, especially for place names!

Sue

Judith

Judith Report 28 Aug 2007 18:09

Firstly technically it wasn't written as fs; it was written with a long s which looked a bit like an f but didn't have a cross stroke. Try looking at some old writing and you will see there was a difference. The long s was a letter in its own right in the alphabet, just like the symbol for "th" which looked a bit like a y and has led to lots of places being wrongly called "ye olde tea shoppe" when the original lettering would have been sounded as the, not ye.
Secondly this long s existed in English language long before Victorian times - have a look at
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/doc1/default.htm and see it used in a letter written in 1554 by princess (later Queen) Elizabeth.

Clare

Clare Report 28 Aug 2007 17:33

Thanks T

Clare

Clare Report 28 Aug 2007 16:39

Cheers All
Thanks for your replies
Would still like to know the reason why it was done that way

Paul Barton, Special Agent

Paul Barton, Special Agent Report 28 Aug 2007 16:32

The Germans continue to use it as a double-s.

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 28 Aug 2007 16:32

That was how Old English was written...the double 'S' has evolved comparatively recently.

Reg

Clare

Clare Report 28 Aug 2007 16:19

Hi All
Does anyone know why 'ss' was written as 'fs' as in Drefsmaker instead of Dressmaker?
It has been bugging me for a while,
Cheers Clare