Word-initial ff
{{short description|Origin and use of double "f" at the beginning of a word}}
The digraph {{char|ff}} at the beginning of a word is an anomalous feature, in lower case, of a few proper names in English. In that setting it has no phonetic difference from {{char|F}}, and has been explained as a misunderstanding of palaeography. In other words, {{char|ff}}, which is "Latin small ligature ff{{hair space}}", a stylistic ligature from Unicode, available now in some Latin script fonts, represented in certain traditional handwriting styles the upper case {{char|F}}.
In Spanish orthography, on the other hand, word-initial {{char|ff}} had a phonetic meaning for several centuries.
In English
File:Court hand alphabet and abbreviations.png alphabet, showing "ff" used as the equivalent of a capital F]]
Mark Antony Lower in his Patronymica Brittanica (1860) called this spelling an affectation. He stated that it originated in "a foolish mistake concerning the ff of old manuscripts, which is no duplication, but simply a capital f."{{cite book |last1=Lower |first1=Mark Antony |title=Patronymica Britannica: A Dictionary of the Family Names of the United Kingdom |date=1860 |publisher=J. R. Smith |page=[https://archive.org/details/patronymicabrita00lowerich/page/112 112] |url=https://archive.org/details/patronymicabrita00lowerich |language=en}} Later in the 19th century the palaeographer Edward Maunde Thompson wrote from the British Museum:{{cite book |last1=New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff |title=The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 47, 1893 |date=2016 |publisher=Heritage Books |isbn=978-0-7884-0652-2 |page=212 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7LMFLDeNU0C&pg=PA212 |language=en}}
{{blockquote|The English legal handwriting of the Middle Ages has no capital F. A double f (ff) was used to represent the capital letter. In transcribing, I should write F, not ff; e. g. Fiske, not ffiske.}}
The replacement of manuscript word-initial {{char|ff}} by {{char|F}} is now a scholarly convention.{{cite book |last1=Freidel |first1=Frank Burt |last2=Showman |first2=Richard K. |title=Harvard Guide to American History |date=1974 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-37560-4 |page=29 note 7|volume=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4raksrLitUAC&pg=PA29}}
Usage in names such as Charles ffoulkes and Richard ffrench-Constant persists. The initial {{char|Ff}} in Welsh spelling of imported proper names has been attributed to the standing of {{char|ff}} as part of normal Welsh orthography.{{cite book |title=Notes and Queries |date=1879 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=391 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOY4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA391 |language=en}} Citing Trevor Davenport-Ffoulkes, H. L. Mencken wrote in a supplement to The American Language that "The initial Ff is sometimes written ff, but this is an error."{{cite book |last1=Mencken |first1=H. L. |title=The American Language, Supplement II |url=https://archive.org/details/americanlanguag00menc |url-access=registration |date=1962 |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanlanguag00menc/page/460 460] note 2 |language=en}} David Crystal cites both Welsh-derived proper names, such as Ffion (where single {{char|F}} would sound like English v in Welsh phonetics), and English-derived names such as Ffoulkes.{{cite book |last1=Crystal |first1=David |title=Spell It Out: The singular story of English spelling |date=2012 |publisher=Profile |isbn=978-1-84765-822-7 |page=171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XBZKMSX8MggC&pg=PT171 |language=en}}
In Spanish
It has been argued that word-initial {{char|ff}} was used in written Spanish around 1500, to indicate the phonetic difference between an f-sound and an aspirated h.{{cite book |last1=Dworkin |first1=Steven N. |title=A Guide to Old Spanish |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-151098-4 |page=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h45lDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 |language=en}} It can be observed to have come in strongly for Spanish spelling during the 13th century.William B. Hawkins, Flight from Assimilation and Trial and Error in Spanish Linguistics, Hispanic Review Vol. 10, No. 4 (Oct., 1942), pp. 273–284, at p. 277. {{JSTOR|469896}} The actual pronunciation was dynamic, with the aspiration being dropped from the time when Madrid became the Spanish capital (1561). The word-initial {{char|ff}} spelling convention lagged behind current phonetics, providing a way of tracking pronunciations after they had become obsolete.Sonia Kania, The Probanza de méritos of Vicente de Zaldívar: Edition and Notes to Part 4, Romance Philology Vol. 67, No. 2 (Fall 2013), pp. 261–316, at p. 268. Published by: Brepols; University of California Press {{JSTOR|44742013}}
Notes
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