S, the German Kurrent letter s
S is the 19th letter of the German alphabet, representing a sibilant fricative, pronounced voiced /z/ in syllable onsets before vowels and voiceless /s/ in codas and clusters. In German Kurrent handwriting, it has a distinct historical ductus taught across German-speaking Europe until 1941.
In words
Sonntag · Sunday
Schwester · sister
Haus · house
History
The letter S occupies the 19th position in the German alphabet. Phonetically, it represents a sibilant fricative, pronounced voiced /z/ in syllable onsets before vowels and voiceless /s/ in codas and clusters.
German handwriting historically maintains two distinct lowercase forms of s: long s (ſ) and round s (s). Long s is written as a tall stroke extending into the ascender zone with a straight downstroke or lower loop, used at the start and middle of syllables (e.g. 'ſo', 'Waſſer'). Round s is written as a closed loop in the middle zone, used exclusively at syllable and word ends (e.g. 'Haus', 'des'). Capital S is a bold, sweeping double curve.
The dual-s rule was mandatory in German orthography until the abolition of Kurrent and Sütterlin in 1941. In compound words, a round s at the end of a morpheme ('Wachſtube' from Wach-Stube vs 'Wachstube' from Wachs-Tube) resolved ambiguities that modern Latin print cannot distinguish.