Use of the long 's'

The Royal Alphabet, page 5.

Latin was more prevalent in the nineteenth century and contributes to the discrepancy in the number of letters in the alphabet. These three chapbooks illustrate the various lengths of alphabets.

In A New Lottery Book and The Rise of Learning, the letter “i” has been paired with “j” and the letter “u” is paired with “v”. This is evident only in the first portion of these chapbooks - in the illustrations. 

Latin letters

The Rise of Learning, page 5.

The chapbook printer may have conveniently paired up these letters to save space on the pages. Other listings of the alphabet can be 27 letters in length. This is due to the inclusion of the long “s”, the ampersand, and the vowel “ae”.                    

The long “s” looks like the letter “f” without the crossbar. It was used in place of an “s” when the word began with an “s” or where there was a double “s” in a word. The ampersand (&) is Latin for the word “et” which means “and”.

It is interesting that Caw and Elder published two chapbooks in the same year and that only one of these chapbooks contains the long “s”, ampersand, and “ae”.