I believe that at least part of the reason the dot is not much used
is the visual effect. The letters b, d, f, and t are some of those
which can carry the dot, but in modern roman typefaces, the dot
tends to get lost alongside the ascenders. In the old Gaelic scripts,
these letters do not have ascenders. (See the book _Irish Type
Design_ by Dermot McGuinne for trial examples of dots in Times
Roman.)

--Phillip Driscoll

----- Originala Mesagxo -----
De: "Cormac (QT Spain)" <cormac@...>
Al: <qalam@yahoogroups.com>
Sendita: vendredon 15an de novembro 2002, 10:48 atm
Temo: Re: Digest Number 194

> The Irish language used to use a dot over a consonant, which altered the
> pronunciation of the consonant. It has now been replaced by the letter h
> after the consonant. In both cases, it is referred to as a seamhu
> ("SHAY-vu"). The dot disappeared quite recently - I have seen it in print

in

> very old textbooks. I don't know the cause of the change; I merely suspect
> the convenience of using more widely available. (However modern Irish
> still uses an acute accent (fada).)