Final form
In certain languages, the final form or terminal form is a special character used to represent a letter only when it occurs at the end of a word. Some languages that use final form characters are: Arabic, Hebrew, Manchu and one letter in Greek (ς).[1][2]
The lowercase Latin letter "s" had separate medial (ſ) and final (s) in the orthographies of many European languages from the medieval period to the early 19th century; it survived in the German Fraktur script until the 1940s.
Hebrew
In the Hebrew alphabet the final form is called sofit (Hebrew: סופית, meaning "final" or "ending").
| Letter name | Non-final | Final (sofit) |
|---|---|---|
| Mem | מ | ם |
| Nun | נ | ן |
| Tsadi | צ | ץ |
| Pe | פ | ף |
| Kaf | כ | ך |
This set of letters is known acronymically as אותיות מנצפ"ך (מ, נ, צ, פ, ך letters).
The now final forms ן ץ ף ך predate their non-final counterparts; They were the default forms used in any position within a word. Their descender eventually bent forwards when preceding another letter to facilitate writing. A final form of these letters is also called pshuta (פשוטה, meaning extended or plain).
The letter Mem also had a descender 𐡌, however, its current final form ם was a variant of מ used interchangeably in all positions. The standardization is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 2b-3a and Shabbas 104a). One instance of a medial ם is preserved in Isaiah 9:6 of the Hebrew Bible, while Nehemiah 2:13 and arguably Genesis 49:19–20 have a final מ.
Modern Hebrew uses the forms פ כ finally, when transcribing a plosive pronunciation, for example מיקרוסקופ (microscope), מובארכ (Mubarak, مبارك), while their final forms ף ך, are transcribing a fricative pronunciation, for example כך (Kach), שף (Chef).
References
- Sarkis, Kristyan. "Arabic Calligraphy and Type Design". Typotheque. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
- Leonidas, Gerry. "A primer on Greek type design". Gerry Leonidas/University of Reading. Retrieved 14 May 2017.