S

Sure, its a Finnish candy classic, and everyone knows its called “Sisu” but even some Finns cant get their head around why the name looks like it says “Gifu”.  

Well, here’s the deal.

The “G” is, in fact, an “S”, it is simply the way the capital “s” looks in Fraktura style typefaces. Fraktura style typefaces is a type of blackletter that was used between the 15th and mid-20th century all over Europe. Other blackletter types are Textura, Rotunda and Swabacher.

Textura          Rotunda        Swabacher         Fraktura

But what about the “f”? 

Well, that too is, believe it or not, an “s”. Or to be correct a so called “long s”. The name has nothing to do with its pronounciation though; it is pronounced normally. Up until the 15th century, the lowercase “s” of an Fraktura looked like a lowercase “f” except with the horisontal “spike” (correct term is crossbar) only sticking out on the backside. The difference is much the same as where a “g” looks nothing like a “G”. In the beginning of the 19th century typefaces with a very short horisontal crossbar started to appear, and to prevent confusion the old type of lowercase “s” was used less and less.