Why do some alphabets have special final forms for some letters?

Question

Some alphabets, e.g. the Greek, Hebrew and Arabic alphabets, have different forms for some letters when they appear at the end of the word.

E.g. in Greek, the letter sigma (σ) appears as a ς when used at the end of a word; in Hebrew, a couple of letters have a special final form; for example the 'm': מ becomes ם when used at the end of a word.

While separate forms for capital letters has a definite advantage (marking the begin of a sentence, or indicating proper nouns) which increases the readability, I can't see any advantage of having a separate final form for certain letters. In fact, this makes an alphabet harder to learn for children/foreigners.

Are there any practical advantages to having final forms for certain letters, or is it just a 'stylistic' choice which survived throughout the ages (unlike the 'long s' in the Latin alphabet)?

Answer 1

Usually the final forms weren't designed intentionally. They arose over time through, effectively, sloppy handwriting.

Up through the mid-Hellenistic period, sigma's various forms (from the same root glyph as "Ш", "ש", and "ش") evolved into standard Σ. This shape was used in inscriptions and important writings. But scribbling Σ over and over gets tiring, and the left side needed to be relatively flat to avoid confusion with Ε. So in quick, informal handwriting, it ended up looking more like a Ϲ, the "lunate sigma".

In cursive script, then, the shape would be connected to the letters on either side. If there was a letter immediately after it, the Ϲ was rounded off into a circle, with the top emphasized to keep it distinct from ο: thus, σ. If there was no letter immediately following it, the line just trailed off: ς.

Then during the Renaissance, printers typesetting Greek text began imitating the conventions that had arisen for other languages: using uppercase and lowercase letters to break up words and sentences and make reading easier. For uppercase they used the classical inscription letters, and for lowercase they tried to imitate cursive handwriting.

This gave us the three modern forms of sigma, Σ/σ/ς. There was no real reason to distinguish σ from ς any more, but at that point it was what readers were used to. Much like capitalizing the pronoun "I" in English, the reasons for it are long gone, but tradition and inertia keep it in place.

EDIT: My information about Hebrew was incorrect, so I won't weigh in on that case.

Answer 2

Arabic has no fewer than 4 forms: independent, initial, medial, and final. But in all cases there is a "kernel" form common among them all. One advantage of this design is that you do not need spaces to separate words – not a minor consideration if writing materials are expensive.

Caveat: in Arabic, final forms are not always distinct. For example, a final Waw can look just like a medial, initial or independent Waw. But the system works.

Answer 3

It makes total sense to signal the start/end of a word in a ScriptThatDoesNotUseWhitespace. The ancient scripts that I have seen do not use whitespace. Having individual initial forms like capitals next to terminal forms as in Arabic

In a script that does have whitespace, terminal forms may come pretty natural if writing cursive, that is a handscript which does preferably not lift the pen until the end of the word--in contrast to American hand lettering, which mimics print letters. I totally agree with Draconis on that part, although that might look as simple as simple curl or drawn out stroke, as a matter of caligraphy. The economics of handwriting do have to be taken into account. There is a big difference between imprints, scratches, or brush strokes. This explains miniscule "e" as a capital "E" starting with the middle stroke but connecting to the above stroke. Whereas a stonemason can work more effectively if avoiding curves and extraneous strokes.

Another thing to consider is that terminal phonemes do possibly have a different sound. It's possible to see a kind of graph-symbolism in letters that imitates sound-qualities. I am not sure what to call this, since sound-symbolism means the exact opposite. Just for example: "I" is thin, "O" is wide and round like the rounded lips, "U" is open, "A" like "K" shows an increasing envelope, what with the glottal plosive that it often is, while "E" or rather Greek "H" (Eta) is very centric with it's central stroke.

The display of the letters depends on the font you are using, but I have no time to take pictures or draw animations.

i do not know enough about Arabic or Hebrew caligraphy for example, so I cannot speak to that.