From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Fri Aug 19 2005 - 14:10:35 CDT
At 11:56 -0400 2005-08-19, Patrick Andries wrote:
>>No, it is not a variant of &, which is an original ligature of e and t.
>
>Yes. "Et" means "and" (English), "en" (Dutch), "und" (German) &
>"agus" (Irish)... ?
The TIRONIAN SIGN ET is not a variant of the AMPERSAND. The AMPERSAND
is an original ligature of the letters "e" and "t". The TIRONIAN SIGN
ET is derived from a notational system used alongside the Latin
alphabet, and is not a ligature of any Latin letters.
On Apple's Irish Extended keyboard driver, digit 7 is on the 7 key, &
is shift-7, and the TIRONIAN SIGN ET is shift-alt-7. Alt-7 is the
PILCROW.
>>It is used to represent the Irish word "agus", which means 'and'.
>
>? was used to represent "and" in Middle English as far as I know.
I didn't say "exclusively". The TIRONIAN ET was used throughout
Europe, from Portugal to Iceland.
>Incidentally the contact who asked me this question doubts that Orrm
>is the only author to use the large 7 if this is what is meant by
>idiosyncratic (but he did not mention any other author using it). I
>have no opinion on the possibility of other authors using large ? at
>the start of paragraphs and sentences.
I suppose in principle it could be casing as some other Latin
abbreviations are, but that would be pretty peculiar. It could be
useful in a scholarly context; I don't believe I have seen it, ever,
in Irish printing. But I haven't looked for it specifically.
-- Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com
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