From: Doug Ewell (dewell@adelphia.net)
Date: Mon Jan 09 2006 - 21:55:19 CST
John Hudson <john at tiro dot ca> wrote:
>> Umlaut as "E" above in this 1978 mediaeval-themed Austrian postage
>> stamp:
>> < http://www.apilch.2in.de/briefmark17.htm >.
>
> This is just a glyph variant of U+00D6 and would decompose to U+004F
> U+0308. There is a long established tradition of writing the German
> umlaut as a small E in display lettering and typography, since before
> use of the teo dots the umlauted vowel was indicated by addition of an
> e, either after or above. Sometimes the E is above the letter as in
> this Austrian stamp example, other times it may be within the letter.
In fact, I think Sütterlin shows the historical transition from "e
above" to "two dots above" quite nicely, with two almost-horizontal
lines that closely resemble the n-like lowercase "e" peculiar to
Sütterlin.
John is right; this is a glyph variant. U+0364 is useful for medieval
and later constructions such as English "ye" that aren't related to
diaeresis or umlaut.
-- Doug Ewell Fullerton, California, USA http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
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