LL-L "Etymology" 2004.09.24 (11) [E]

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From: Ruth & Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2004.09.23 (10) [E]

Dear Mark,

 Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

> When I use the /th/ I mean the theta symbol.  I notice in the
> Middle English and other forms there is a /w/ present where the /th/ is.
I
> would have expected something different (I'm not sure what I would expect,
> but it wouldn't be /w/).  Can anyone hypothesize how that came to be?

I don't quite follow, but the Old & Middle English alphabet is different.
Here we go; & I too apologise that I can't represent the symbols directly.

1) The foundation of the script is the Insular Half-Uncial. There are many
singular variations, but in the main, a consistant tradition & style that
can be found for instance in the Durham Psalter, the Book of Kells & the
Lindesfarne Gospels.

2) The Anglo Saxon Scholars found this alphabet to be inadequate for the
sounds used in their language, & added a few, & we would include the macron
'ae' that they also had. For the Northumbrians there was also a macron 'oe'.

3) They also used a form of Roman Uncials as we do, starting the tradition
of Capital Letters.
The 'A' had a lintel like the 'T', & the crossbar was a
chevron pointing downward.
The Macron was an 'E' with a slash
attached behind, & the middle bar extended to form a lean-to 'A'.
For the voiced tip-velar, a fricative 'D' the vertical bar had a slash
across at
the midline.
The 'G' was a 'C' drawn square, with a little 'i' on the end of the foot;
dotless.
The 'H' was like a minuscule 'h', but with the bar bent down until it
touched the branch: It looled like a capital 'B' without a foot.
'I' & 'J' were the same; 'I'.
'K' was not used.
'L' was like that of the old 'Pound' sign.
'M' was a minuscule writ large.
'N' had the diagonal going only halfway up the back bar.
The 'OE' macron looks like a reversed Capital 'D' combined with a Capital
'E' on the same vertical stave.
'S' turned down so far forward its top point touched itself again.
'T' was a horizontal bar like a 'T' with a hook hung under it, pointing to
the right.
'Theta' was represented by a symbol taken from the Anglo-Friese runestaves,
the 'Thorn' rune, number three of the first 'Eitt.' In the capital form it
looked like the right half of a heart-sign made against an 'I' sign.
'U' looked like our 'U' & did double duty for 'U' & 'V'.
'W' also was taken from the runestaves, the 'Ween' (Friend) rune, number
eight of the first 'Eitt'. It looked like a Pythagorean right-angle,
standing on the point of its long axis, pointing to the right.
'Z' had a horizontal slash through the middle of its diagonal.

The Insular-Half-Uncials have to be written at a different Angle, according
to a different module, & with a different pen. But I like it.
'a' as we have it.
The macron 'ae', as we have it.
'd' like a reversed '6' with the tail slightly recurved.
The voiced tip-velar, a fricative 'd', had a horizontal bar across the
middle of the tail.
'f' was drawn below the line instead of above it.
'g' was instead a letter called 'youg' from the Erse, meaning 'yoke'. It was
a horizontal top bar with an 's' hanging under it.
'i' & 'j' were the same, often 'j'-like.
'n' was like the capital in shape, only smaller.
The macron 'oe' - the letters just joined at the midpoint.
'q' was like an inverted six ending in a horizontal line, something like a
'2' drawn below the line.
'r' was like an 'n' with a long stave extending below the line.
's' was like an 'r' with a similar extension of the long stave.
't' as for the Capital, but writ small.
'theta' the same 'thorn' rune, writ small, but with the stave extended above
& below the line.
    This 'thorn' stood in for the 't-h' in 'the'. It evolved into a recurved
backslash, the half-heart remaining vertical. to the modern eye it looks
rather more like a 'y' than anything else, & that is the origin of the 'ye'
as in (for instance) 'ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe' type tourist trap shop
sign.
'u' & 'v' as for the Capital, writ small.
'w' exactly like the 'thorn' letter, but with the stave extended only below
the line.
    The similarities are such that both the modern reader & calligrapher
must beware of confusing them, the minuscule 'thorn' & 'ween'.
The 'ampersand' looked like a Spencarian cursive 'T' or sometimes a '7'.

There must be a font somewhere on the internet, & if I only knew how, I'd go
looking for it.

Yrs,
Mark

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