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Given that æ and œ were so widely used in early modern printed Latin, were there conventional names for them? Something like "a et e ligatæ", or "a cum e", or "a, e in a" like in French? Lazar Taxon ( talk) 14:45, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
Jayron32 -- Those names come from Anglo-Saxon runes, and are valid for the ligature letters as used in Old English, but there's no reason why they would be relevant for Latin outside of England. In Old English, the ligatures really were separate letters of the alphabet, but in Latin they were basically just abbreviations for the letter sequences "ae" and "oe", with a tendency to be replaced by "e" in medieval Latin, so there was less need for distinct names for the ligatures than in Old English... AnonMoos ( talk) 00:31, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
Language desk | ||
---|---|---|
< February 15 | << Jan | February | Mar >> | Current desk > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
Given that æ and œ were so widely used in early modern printed Latin, were there conventional names for them? Something like "a et e ligatæ", or "a cum e", or "a, e in a" like in French? Lazar Taxon ( talk) 14:45, 16 February 2023 (UTC)
Jayron32 -- Those names come from Anglo-Saxon runes, and are valid for the ligature letters as used in Old English, but there's no reason why they would be relevant for Latin outside of England. In Old English, the ligatures really were separate letters of the alphabet, but in Latin they were basically just abbreviations for the letter sequences "ae" and "oe", with a tendency to be replaced by "e" in medieval Latin, so there was less need for distinct names for the ligatures than in Old English... AnonMoos ( talk) 00:31, 17 February 2023 (UTC)