Re: Alternative histories of the letter Y (was: English diphthongs)

On 2008-08-29 J. 'Mach' Wust wrote:
 > * Regarding Old English, there is the theory
 >   that the letter Y originated from a
 >   combination of the letters V and I, or at
 >   least was understood as a combination of these
 >   letters, hence the name U-I that regularly
 >   developed into the modern name "wye". I can't
 >   judge whether this theory is still upheld, but
 >   I find it interesting.
 >

That the letter y was **thought** to be a ligature
of VI or rather vj (remember that j and i were
merely graphic variants in the Middle Ages) is
bejond doubt, since we have the word of the
unknown Icelander who wrote the First Grammatical
Treatise for it, but whether it also **was** so
is highly doubtful.


/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
  à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
  ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
  c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)