Michael Everson wrote:
> Both derive directly from Old Slavonic letter tvrdo.
That proves too much: they also derive directly from tau,
as does Latin "t".
Serbian has, AFAIK, a unique position* among the world's
written languages: it has two scripts but only one writing
system (unlike Mongolian or Javanese, where there are two
completely separate writing systems). It is common,
I am told, for a manuscript to be submitted in Latin
script even though it is to be printed in Cyrillic, e.g.
Transliteration is completely mechanical, requiring
no knowledge of Serbian spelling rules.
So in the Serbian context it actually makes sense to
say that U+0411 and U+0042 are mere glyphic variants
of the same underlying character!\
====
* I will not enter into the discussion of how many
languages are named by the labels "Serbian" and "Croatian"
and other more recently applied names. I am using
"Serbian" in this posting for convenience.
--Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com> Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau, || http://www.reutershealth.com Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)
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