Re: Ie abbreviation character

From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Thu May 02 2002 - 07:30:22 EDT


At 11:49 +0200 2002-05-02, Lars Marius Garshol wrote:
>* Lars Marius Garshol
>|
>| Also, I am very curious if this character is used (or even known)
>| outside Norway at all.
>
>* Michael Everson
>|
>| It's a Latin abbreviation I imagine. It's found in older Irish texts
>| where it represents "con".
>
>Are you saying that precisely the same character ("9:") can be found
>in old Irish manuscripts? Also, what is "con"; is it the Latin word,
>or an Irish word? If it's the Latin word that would mean that the
>character used in a different sense in Irish, right? And today the
>Irish use ".i." as an abbreviation for "i.e.", rather than "9:"?

The reversed C is a Latin manuscript abbreviation. It generally means
"con". It is often festooned with other marks, which modify it.
Cappelli's dictionary does not show this character with a colon
following it, and I can't say how it came to have a meaning "det vil
si". I am sure there is a paper trail there somewhere! In Cappelli's
dictionary you do find .9. for instance.

The Irish never used 9: as an abbreviation to my knowledge. But .i.
"eadhon" is commonly used here in preference to i.e. "id est". The
character 9 is found in Irish manuscripts with the meaning "con", .i.
9chobhair = Conchobhair.

At 09:15 +0200 2002-05-02, Trond Trosterud wrote:
>
>I use it as well (but obviously only in handwriting). It looks like a
>reversed c with a colon following it, thus the mirror image of the
>following:
>
>:c
>
>(well, the reverse C is more like an open circle, and the : is much closer
>to it than shown above). Don't you use this?

We don't, Trond, and we're looking for information about it. I'd
encode it with the IPA open o and a colon; Lars is wondering why it
shouldn't be considered a single entity. Has it a name in Norwegian?

>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>Trond Trosterud t +47 7764 4763
>Samisk institutt, Det humanistiske fakultet m +47 950 70140
>N-9037 Universitetet i Tromsų, Noreg f +47 7764 4239
>Trond.Trosterud@hum.uit.no http://www.hum.uit.no/a/trond/
>-------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Michael Everson *** Everson Typography *** http://www.evertype.com



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