ß

The ? ? Eszett (IPA ) in German or scharfes S (sharp S) if spelled out ? is a letter used only in the German alphabet. It alternates with ss under certain conditions, and it is replaced by ss when there is no ? available. ? is nearly unique among the letter of Latin alphabet in that it has no upper case form since it never occurs initially (one of the few other examples is kra, used in Greenlandic).

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There are two different origins of the ligature ?:

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• Ligature ?s: a ligature of long s (?, looks like an f without the bar) and (normal) round s.
• Ligature ?z: a ligature of ? and z.

The ligature of long ? and round s was used in antiqua typefaces, for instance in English or French. It fell into disuse when the long ? was abandoned in the 18th century.

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In German blackletter typefaces, the ligature of long ? and z was used since the Middle Ages. In the High German consonant shift, Germanic became or . At first, both were spelled zz, but soon, they were differentiated as ?z and tz. Originally, that s-sound was different from the old Germanic s-sound spelled ss, but this difference was lost in the Middle Ages. Therefore, the spellings ?z and ss became confused. The modern distinction between the two spellings emerged after many centuries. Until the German spelling reform of 1901, the use varied from region to region.

ß: Origin ►



 

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