The Origin of [sh]

[Emma May Smith]

Emma, do you mean it was like one would dot one's i's at the end of a long word as opposed to immediately after writing the i? Because in that case you could see whether there is more of a difference in longer words with sh near the beginning.

I'm not sure I understand what the implication could be though. Both diacritics and actual parts of glyphs can be applied after having written the whole word.

I suppose it's true that parts of a glyph could genuinely be added later. I think that we would have to use this as only part of the evidence.

The implication is that the cause/environment/context for Sh may not be the adjacent glyphs but those a little further away. My specific thought is that another glyph may be partly 'transferred' to this location and become the topstroke. I'm sorry it's so vague, but it's just a hunch.