medieval english language

[mjandrews96]

why are f's used instead of s's in medieval english especially at the end of or in the middle of word spelling

[Ewood27]

In fact normal s's are used at the end of words, with what look like f's in all other parts. If you look closely those f's have no cross stroke. There is a connection with ancient Greek, where the letter "s" is written differently according to whether it is at the end of a word or not. Why? Good question!

[Peter Pedant]

The f is really a stretched out s. There is no cross bar but there may be a bit out the side. The stretched out S only represents a pure s and not the zed sound that s can also spell. The two sigmas are a red herring and have nothing to do with this. One is a cursive form of the other.

[Peter Pedant]

The f is really a stretched out s. There is no cross bar but there may be a bit out the side. The stretched out S only represents a pure s and not the zed sound that s can also spell. The two sigmas are a red herring and have nothing to do with this. One is a cursive form of the other.