ffolliott (UNCLASSIFIED)--thorn

[Geoff Nathan]

Wikipedia to the rescue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter)

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

----- "Bill AMRDEC Mullins" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:

> From: "Bill AMRDEC Mullins" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 2:57:24 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: ffolliott (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: ffolliott (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> >
> > Perhaps some transcribers saw manuscript representations of a
> capital
> > F (which naturally would *only* be in an initial position) that
> > looked like two lower-case "f"s connected, treated it like symbols
> or
> > other characters not in their fonts (e.g., like using a "y" for the
> > thorn -- a *letter* replaced by a letter), and transcribed it as a
> > double lower-case "ff".
>
> What do you mean by "the thorn" -- is that the name of a typographic
> symbol?  What does it look like? (The OED doesn't help with its entry
> for "thorn").
>
> >

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