John W. Kennedy wrote:
> Ed Cryer wrote:
>
>> P >> B; hardened P.
>
> Mere accident. The Etruscans made pi in a lopsided way, with one leg
> shorter than the other, and the Romans eventually closed the loop. The
> only genetic relations among the Latin alphabet are:
>
> C < Gamma < G?mal
> G < C < Gamma < G?mal
>
> I < Iota < Yudh
> J < I < Iota < Yudh
>
> and
>
> F < Wau < Waw
> V < Upsilon < Waw
> U < V < Upsilon < Waw
> W < V < Upsilon < Waw
> Y < Upsilon < Waw
>
> (Waw is the alphabetic analog of Ytterby, I suppose.)
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. The Swedish Y in Ytterby is an
unambiguous vowel (just as in Latin), no? Waw was a consonant that
engendered two Greek letters, F (a consonant), and Y (a vowel).
Later the Greek vowel Y engendered Latin V, which (like I) served both as
vowel and consonant, and was later re-introduced to Latin as Y, to
indicate the specifically Greek sound of the letter.
--
Will
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