Re: Looking for 5 old Spanish letters.

From: Kenneth Whistler (kenw@sybase.com)
Date: Thu Dec 16 1999 - 19:59:09 EST


Carlos Levoyer asked:

>
> 1. One that looks very much like our actual "f", but
> it doesn't have the right part of the little
> horizontal bar that crosses it. Although it does not
> have that part it does have the left part.

This is the long-s. For most purposes, it is just a glyph
variant of the regular s, but in instances where it needs
to be separately represented in text, the Unicode value is:

U+017F LATIN SMALL LETTER LONG S

>
> 2. One that binds our actual "c" and "t". It
> "connects" the upper end of the "c" with the upper end
> of the "t" through a quarter of a circle been its
> center point (if drawn by a compass) at the left
> extreme point of the horizontal bar that crosses
> the"t".

This is simply a ligation of c and t. It should not be
encoded as a separate letter. Certain old style fonts
will, however, have the glyph for this ligature available
for display.

Note also the long-s/t ligatures in the same lemma for
Doctor in this dictionary.

>
> 3. One that combines two parts of different letters:
> our actual "u" with the Spanish serpent-like line
> (tilde) over the "ñ", (the latter does not exist in
> English;ASCII code: 164).

U+0169 LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH TILDE

>
> 4. One that combines two parts of different letters:
> our actual "q" with the Spanish serpent-like line over
> the "ñ" (ASCII code: 164).

Represented by the following sequence:

U+0071 LATIN SMALL LETTER Q + U+0303 COMBINING TILDE

Presumably this is a manuscript abbreviation for something
like "quando" or whatever. There are many such abbreviations
derived from the Latin manuscript traditions.

>
> 5. One that combines two parts of different letters:
> our actual "e" with the Spanish serpent-like line over
> the "ñ" (ASCII code: 164).

U+1EBD LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH TILDE

>
> In case this is not clear you will find these letters
> in a web page of a Dictionary:
>
> http://www.rae.es/nivel1/buscon/AUTORIDAD2.HTM
>

>
> A. Have you seen these letters in any language? Which
> one?

u-tilde is used in Greenlandic and in other languages with
nasalized vowels. e-tilde is used in Vietnamese, as well
as in languages with nasalized vowels. q-tilde is likely
just used as a manuscript abbreviation.

>
> B. Have you seen fonts of those languages? Can I see
> them in a web page? Tell me the exact electronic
> address.

All of these except the ct-ligature glyph are easily available
with most Unicode fonts. For a ct-ligature glyph (and
long-st ligature glyph) you need to look for specialized
fonts for old typographical traditions.

--Ken Whistler



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