When comparing different spellings of the Dutch language, the document “Trade on the Nederduitsche spelling to promote unanimity in the same” (1805 by Matthias Siegenbeek) dropped the use of the symbol “f” ,in places where an “s” is expected becomes, on.
This is how the word “schoone” was written as “fschoone” (p3)
The text of the document can be consulted at the web addresses below.
http://www.archive.org/stream/verhandelove00repugoog
http://books.google.com/books?id=ideHBr9zNJIC&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0
In the other documents I examined, I did not come across this fact anywhere.
Answer
Best,
This ‘f’ is really just another spelling and printing of the small , the so-called ‘long s’. You can compare the first element in the German ‘Esszett’. See http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/ß http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lange_s.
Answered by
Dr. Rik Vosters
Historical sociolinguistics
Pleinlaan 2 1050 Ixelles
http://www.vub.ac.be/
.