There's a very good programme on the alphabet on Radio 4 (BBC). I've only caught one of them but found it very informative and interesting. Regarding different forms of i, there were different forms of various letters in the secretary hand depending upon where the letter was in the word, either at the beginning, the end or in the middle or whether it incorporated an abbreviation. Some of this was carried over from medieval Latin but Anglicised and the letter J was a late addition to the English alphabet, with I being used where today we would use J. Lower case letters also came later than upper case, although it this development occurred before the middle ages. Audrey Audrey ----- Original Message ----- From: "1carla" <cbodette@wi.rr.com> To: <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 1:33 AM Subject: Re: [OEL] Days in Roman characters > maybe > > IULIUS CAESAR > > > - Denne meldingen er sjekket for virus av Norton Anti-virus > - This message was checked for virus by Norton Anti-virus > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Polly Rubery" <polly@rowberry.org> > To: <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 11:50 AM > Subject: Re: [OEL] Days in Roman characters > > > > Hi Alejandro > > > > >>in Roman characters, such as "... the xviij October", or > > "the xxvijth day of January". I assume that the use of the "j" is just a > > convention<< > > > > Yes it was a convention to write the last i in a figure as a j to prevent > > someone adding in another one or two - that could have made a lot of > > difference when it was money, so rather like the line we use to fill in > any > > blank space on our cheques today. > > > > And of course in the roman alphabet they were just different ways of > writing > > the same letter, so that an inscription to Julius Ceaser would be written > > IULIUS CEASER! > > HTH > > Polly > > > > Polly Rubery > > List owner: MIDMARCH-L@rootsweb.com > > A genealogy and local history list covering the Counties of Brecon, > > Hereford, Monmouth, Shropshire, Stafford and Worcester > > ENG-HEREFORD-L@rootsweb.com > > ROWBERRY-L@rootsweb.com > > Acting List owner: Bristol_and_Somerset-L@rootsweb.com > > ROWBERRY/RUBERY ONS - GOONS #278 > > rowberry@one-name.org > > http://www.rowberry.org > > Webmaster for the Herefordshire Family History Society > > http://www.rootsweb.com/~ukhfhs/index.html > > > > Kind regards > > > > > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > > To UNSUBSCRIBE from list mode -- > > Send the one word UNSUBSCRIBE to > > OLD-ENGLISH-L-request@rootsweb.com > > > > > > > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > OLD-ENGLISH Web Page > http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/ > >

Would love to have seen it but, alas, I'm in the states. Perhaps it will pop up on cable here too. - Denne meldingen er sjekket for virus av Norton Anti-virus - This message was checked for virus by Norton Anti-virus ----- Original Message ----- From: "norman.lee1" <norman.lee1@virgin.net> To: "1carla" <cbodette@wi.rr.com>; <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 2:08 PM Subject: Re: [OEL] Days in Roman characters > There's a very good programme on the alphabet on Radio 4 (BBC). I've only > caught one of them but found it very informative and interesting. > > Regarding different forms of i, there were different forms of various > letters in the secretary hand depending upon where the letter was in the > word, either at the beginning, the end or in the middle or whether it > incorporated an abbreviation. Some of this was carried over from medieval > Latin but Anglicised and the letter J was a late addition to the English > alphabet, with I being used where today we would use J. Lower case letters > also came later than upper case, although it this development occurred > before the middle ages. > > Audrey > > > Audrey > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "1carla" <cbodette@wi.rr.com> > To: <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 1:33 AM > Subject: Re: [OEL] Days in Roman characters > > > > maybe > > > > IULIUS CAESAR > > > > > > - Denne meldingen er sjekket for virus av Norton Anti-virus > > - This message was checked for virus by Norton Anti-virus > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Polly Rubery" <polly@rowberry.org> > > To: <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> > > Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 11:50 AM > > Subject: Re: [OEL] Days in Roman characters > > > > > > > Hi Alejandro > > > > > > >>in Roman characters, such as "... the xviij October", or > > > "the xxvijth day of January". I assume that the use of the "j" is just a > > > convention<< > > > > > > Yes it was a convention to write the last i in a figure as a j to > prevent > > > someone adding in another one or two - that could have made a lot of > > > difference when it was money, so rather like the line we use to fill in > > any > > > blank space on our cheques today. > > > > > > And of course in the roman alphabet they were just different ways of > > writing > > > the same letter, so that an inscription to Julius Ceaser would be > written > > > IULIUS CEASER! > > > HTH > > > Polly > > > > > > Polly Rubery > > > List owner: MIDMARCH-L@rootsweb.com > > > A genealogy and local history list covering the Counties of Brecon, > > > Hereford, Monmouth, Shropshire, Stafford and Worcester > > > ENG-HEREFORD-L@rootsweb.com > > > ROWBERRY-L@rootsweb.com > > > Acting List owner: Bristol_and_Somerset-L@rootsweb.com > > > ROWBERRY/RUBERY ONS - GOONS #278 > > > rowberry@one-name.org > > > http://www.rowberry.org > > > Webmaster for the Herefordshire Family History Society > > > http://www.rootsweb.com/~ukhfhs/index.html > > > > > > Kind regards > > > > > > > > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > > > To UNSUBSCRIBE from list mode -- > > > Send the one word UNSUBSCRIBE to > > > OLD-ENGLISH-L-request@rootsweb.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > > OLD-ENGLISH Web Page > > http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/ > > > > > >