Re: VMs: 1-2-3 eliminate me!

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

2/27/03 3:13:21 PM, Gabriel Landini <G.Landini@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


>So the entropy really is going to hit the floor... 
>Are <a> and <ee> interchangeable?

I don't normally stick my neck out, but I'll stick it 
on this one.

I am sure that <a> and <ee> are. not freely interchangeable,
but environment-conditioned allographs of the same
grapheme (pardon the jargon). In plain English: depending
on what's next, you write <a> or <ee>, but they both mean the
same.

For three reasons, in descending order of credibility:

Firstly, on distributional properties. (Go to the archives,
it's all there)

Secondly, on calligraphy (letter-shapes). <a>, which ends
with a slanting, straight stroke, occurs before letters which
start with a slanting, straight stroke, viz <dain>.
<ee>, which ends with a c-like curved stroke, occurs before
letters which start with a c-like curved stroke, such as 
<d>, viz qoteedy.

Thirdly, but weakest evidence of all (nevertheless interesting),
<ee> is the spit and image of the letter "a" in the medieval
"Visigothic" and "Beneventan" scripts.

But I was repeating myself there. It's all in the archives.



______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list