Re: Uinlitska noises and squiggles

On 4/21/08, Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...> wrote:
> On 21.4.2008 Paul Bennett wrote:
>  > {gamma} means /N/
>
>  Some early Icelandic script used a slashed q as an
>  abbreviation for /ng/. You can find it on page 74 of
>
>  <http://www.mufi.info/specs/MUFI-Alphabetic-2-0.pdf>
Interesting symbol, and what a great document!

The PUA makes me (perhaps irrationally) uneasy, but having a list of
the attested sign forms is definitely a good thing.

>  > {yogh} or 'x' may stand in for 'g' if a 'g'-like {gamma}
>  > is being used 'b', 'd', 'g' now mean /b/, /d/, /g/ (the
>  > latter instead of meaning borrowed /N/)
>
>  Insular g (\uA77D \u1D79 rather thn Middle English yogh, the
>  cap is at \uF10B in current MUFI fonts) for /g/ and Gg for
>  /N/, would be a nice touch!
Would it?

I like (and tried to use) the notion that "Real G" would be used for
/g/ and "Foreign G" would be used for /N/.

However, my gut tells me that Old Norse was written more frequently in
Carolingian than Insular, which (if true) would have meant that U+0067
was the natural "inherited" form of 'g', with U+1D79, U+021D and
U+03B3 all being external versions. Of them all, {gamma} (U+03B3) is
the only one that I know of with an existing use for /N/ in a language
that the Christians of this AU would certainly have been familiar
with.

>  > A set of scribal/tironian-style abbreviations are coming,
>  > mostly imported phonetically and/or ideographically from
>  > Latin, plus a few invented locally.
>
>  Yes the Old Icelandic Tironisms are realy enticing!
Is there a paleographical cheat-sheet anywhere that could help me pick
over the huge number of variants and symbols with knowledge of their
phone*ic and ideographic uses in Norse, Latin, and/or general use? I
can find limited information in the official Unicode.org documents,
but that's barely enough to whet my appetite.




Paul

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