Re: Omega + upsilon ligature?

At 05:05 AM 02-10-02, Michael Everson wrote:

> >Therefore, I tentatively identified the word as "?????" ("ôurôn"), and the
> >unknown glyph ligature as an "??" ligature ("ôu": omegha + upsilon).
>
>Omicron upsilon.

Michael is right, it's omicron not omega.

> >Does anyone know whether such a ligature actually existed in old typography?
> >And was it anything like an open "8"?
>
>Yes. I've seen it in modern graffitti in Athens too.

This ligature is one of the few that survived the extended period of
ligature-rich cursive Greek typography that began in the late 15th century
and withered in the mid-18th century. It and the so called 'stigma'
ligature (sigma tau) continued into modern usage and may still be
encountered in Greek handwriting and some polytonic typography, although
generally not in monotonic setting.

John Hudson

Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
Vancouver, BC tiro@...

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