Created, ironically, from the long s and a regular s. It has no majuscule form and has never been uniformly used. It is regularly and easily replaced with "ss". It was primarily created to save space in handwritten codices and, while I love it dearly and don't want it removed from the German language, and while I hate the recent spelling reforms that change daß into dass, it still isn't a letter.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
The Fascinating History of 10 Extra Letters the English Alphabet Used to Have
- 18/01/2018 06:35:45 PM
1345 Views
I have to take issue with the & and the "long s"
- 18/01/2018 07:28:09 PM
660 Views
Ok, let's define what a letter is.
- 18/01/2018 11:25:22 PM
720 Views
Yes, the long "s" is just a variant. It didn't have a name in Old English.
- 19/01/2018 03:39:51 PM
843 Views
I don't think not having a name in Old English matters here.
- 19/01/2018 05:05:47 PM
966 Views
I think it does, quite definitively.
- 20/01/2018 08:46:24 PM
710 Views
All th Germans I have known have considered ß to be a letter.
- 20/01/2018 11:01:40 PM
795 Views
ß is a ligature
- 21/01/2018 04:04:48 PM
670 Views
That article is even sloppier than the first
- 20/01/2018 09:01:33 PM
663 Views
All letters were once "fake".
- 20/01/2018 10:59:11 PM
765 Views
Isn't that kind of idealist 
- 21/01/2018 08:02:14 AM
691 Views
- 21/01/2018 08:02:14 AM
691 Views
Realist perhaps 
- 22/01/2018 01:54:14 AM
658 Views
- 22/01/2018 01:54:14 AM
658 Views
Pivots
- 22/01/2018 03:43:56 AM
778 Views
Meanwhile
- 22/01/2018 12:23:13 PM
637 Views
No, actually that's quite incorrect.
- 21/01/2018 04:14:18 PM
711 Views
You've missed the point.
- 22/01/2018 01:53:59 AM
714 Views
No, I'm trying to show the qualitative difference between the two events.
- 22/01/2018 04:34:20 PM
596 Views
The letter J? *NM*
- 22/01/2018 05:19:14 PM
416 Views
No, J is a lot like the long s.
- 22/01/2018 07:23:01 PM
643 Views
Agreed. Ligatures aren't letters. *NM*
- 19/01/2018 06:13:43 AM
396 Views
Eh . . . the Ampersand is probably now considered a logogram rather than a ligature.
- 19/01/2018 01:27:21 PM
645 Views
I enjoy this thread muchly...yet I will not participate besides saying
- 19/01/2018 10:46:40 PM
659 Views
You're using sublime too often; it's losing its luster
- 20/01/2018 12:15:10 AM
698 Views
Do I? (in regards to sublime)
- 20/01/2018 12:46:35 AM
652 Views
(in regards to sublime)
- 20/01/2018 03:18:04 PM
678 Views
- 20/01/2018 11:20:11 PM
649 Views
*NM*
- 20/01/2018 11:20:11 PM
649 Views
*NM*
Thank all gods everywhere they are gone.
- 22/01/2018 12:23:34 PM
651 Views
Some other letters should go too.
- 22/01/2018 01:12:31 PM
713 Views
I'm against removing letters that have done perfectly well for over 2500 years, thank you
- 22/01/2018 04:41:23 PM
627 Views
And I am not. We have had this debate before. To each his own. :-)
- 22/01/2018 05:22:36 PM
628 Views
I thought of removing C, as well.
- 22/01/2018 06:16:20 PM
654 Views
And calling people you don't like "fu king unts"? *NM*
- 22/01/2018 07:25:29 PM
487 Views
Meanwhile if it were written as fuking kunts, no one would have any issues
- 22/01/2018 07:54:41 PM
721 Views
I have an issue, kunts looks too much like nuts or knuts
- 22/01/2018 08:09:52 PM
653 Views
Would you prefer a Knut?
- 22/01/2018 10:55:09 PM
618 Views
Yes I like my internet memes and thus I do not want to be confused by that word sometimes directed
- 23/01/2018 10:28:58 PM
601 Views
Yes, about the meanings. Pronounced quite differently.
- 25/01/2018 06:17:22 PM
746 Views
Scheisse. I did forget it.
- 26/01/2018 05:24:21 PM
621 Views
You mean Scheiße? *NM*
- 26/01/2018 06:49:26 PM
401 Views
*NM*
But it would look "fuking" stupid
- 23/01/2018 01:30:15 AM
651 Views
All languages change
- 23/01/2018 01:40:18 AM
630 Views
Also, you're not talking about the language changing. You're talking about changing the language.
- 23/01/2018 02:16:39 AM
699 Views
I am being a realist who understands that spellings change. Letters get dropped. Language evolves.
- 23/01/2018 06:53:25 PM
756 Views
It is posts like this that remind me why you are my RAFO tree
- 23/01/2018 10:29:53 PM
597 Views
Nope sadly he did not 
*NM*
- 23/01/2018 10:30:09 PM
329 Views
*NM*
- 23/01/2018 10:30:09 PM
329 Views
Evolution, not revolution
- 23/01/2018 10:54:37 PM
745 Views
Should change occur in one's lifetime or only seen through a generational prism? *NM*
- 23/01/2018 11:07:47 PM
383 Views
It's also one of the reasons I am against the 1918 spelling reforms in Russia.
- 23/01/2018 02:06:34 AM
771 Views