[DCRM-L] FW: When is a ligature not a ligature?

Thu Dec 13 13:59:13 MST 2007

It’s AACR2  that says to separate all ligatures. With this excision in the RI’s, we’re back to that: separating all ligatures (really, digraphs), 

__________________________ 
Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. 
Head of Cataloging 
Folger Shakespeare Library 
201 East Capitol St., S.E. 
Washington, D.C. 20003 
202.675-0369 
djleslie at folger.edu | http://www.folger.edu 

-----Original Message-----
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Noble, Richard
Sent: Thursday, 13 December, 2007 15:47
To: DCRM Revision Group List
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] FW: When is a ligature not a ligature?

The excision of the exception, which formerly appeared in LCRI 1.0E, "Pre-Modern Forms of Letters", was announced--or more accurately can be inferred--in CSB 112 (Summer 2005). As it's printed therein, there's a stroke opposite the sentences "... specified herein. If there is any doubt ...", which, in its quiet way, is telling you that there used to be something there, but now there isn't. A visible overstrike of the formerly intervening sentence "Separate ligatures that are occasional stylistic usages (Œdipus, alumnæ, etc.) rather than standard usages in the modern orthography of the language, e.g., œ in French (as in œuvre) or æ in Danish (as in særtyk)" might have been helpful.

The question remains: Since these remain "standard usages" in the specified languages (I don't think LCRIs trump the Academie francaise), does not one still transcribe them as found? What's really been excised seems to be the instruction to separate, as an exception to exact transcription, ligatures which are not standard usages of modern languages. That is, we no longer make a distinction between "stylistic" and "standard" usages, and thus no longer separate any ligatures, but instead transcribe them along with everything else "in general ... as they appear in the source". That's an even bigger change, yes? A return to the Œdipus complex, even in Latin.

Richard

RICHARD NOBLE : RARE BOOKS CATALOGER : JOHN HAY LIBRARY : BROWN UNIVERSITY
PROVIDENCE, RI 02912 : 401-863-1187/FAX 863-2093 : RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU 

-----Original Message-----
From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Wickenden Jane
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 1:53 PM
To: DCRM Revision Group List
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] FW: When is a ligature not a ligature?

Hwæt?!?!?

Oh, for ... well I'm glad I'm just off home for the evening; that's all I'm going to say now. ;->

Jane

Jane Wickenden 
Historic Collections Librarian  (and ex-student of Old English and Old Icelandic) 
Institute of Naval Medicine 
Alverstoke 
023 9276 8238 

 <http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.5724> http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.5724

  _____  

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Maxwell
Sent: 13 December 2007 18:18
To: DCRM Revision Group List
Subject: [DCRM-L] FW: Anglo-Saxon, French & Scandinavian ligatures

I’ve been having a brief “off-line” conversation with Deborah and she suggested DCRM-L might be interested, so here you go. Start at the bottom :-)

Bob

Robert L. Maxwell
Special Collections and Ancient Languages Catalog Librarian
Genre/Form Authorities Librarian
6728 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801)422-5568 

From: Deborah J. Leslie [mailto:DJLeslie at FOLGER.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 10:44 AM
To: Robert Maxwell
Subject: RE: Anglo-Saxon, French & Scandinavian

I can’t believe it! Sigh.

I’ll bet DCRM-L would be interested in this tidbit.

__________________________ 
Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. 
Head of Cataloging 
Folger Shakespeare Library 
201 East Capitol St., S.E. 
Washington, D.C. 20003 
202.675-0369 
djleslie at folger.edu | http://www.folger.edu 

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Maxwell [mailto:robert_maxwell at byu.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, 12 December, 2007 17:58
To: Deborah J. Leslie
Subject: Anglo-Saxon, French & Scandinavian

Deborah,

Remember our long discussions in the editorial board and elsewhere about 0G1.1?

0G1.1. Letters and diacritics.     <http://desktop.loc.gov/nxt/gateway.dll?f=xhitlist$xhitlist_x=Advanced$xhitlist_vpc=first$xhitlist_xsl=querylink.xsl$xhitlist_sel=title;path;content-type;home-title$xhitlist_d=%7Baacr2%7D$xhitlist_q=%5Bfield%20folio-destination-name:%271.0G1%27%5D$xhitlist_md=target-id=0-0-0-1133>  

In general, transcribe letters as they appear. Do not add accents and other diacritical marks not present in the source. Convert earlier forms of letters and diacritical marks to their modern form (see Appendix G2). In most languages, including Latin, transcribe a ligature by giving its component letters separately. Do not, however, separate the component letters of æ in Anglo-Saxon ; œ in French; or æ and œ in ancient or modern Scandinavian languages. If there is any doubt as to the correct conversion of letters and diacritical marks to modern form, transcribe them from the source as exactly as possible.

I remember the tipping point for why we were giving these three rather obscure (in my opinion) exceptions to the principle of transcribing component letters of ligatures separately was because the LCRI said to do it this way and we had the principle of following AACR2/LCRI unless there were rare reasons not to. (I realize there were other arguments, but I feel that was the main reason 0G1.1 had the three exceptions.) Well guess what. I was looking for the LCRI today in Catalogers’ Desktop and the instruction appears to have been removed :-(. Of course since it’s an electronic document, no way of knowing when it was removed or even any clue that it was ever there. I see the page in our paper copy of LCRI was replaced in Feb. 2006. Oh well, sic transit gloria mundi, or whatever.

Bob

Robert L. Maxwell
Special Collections and Ancient Languages Catalog Librarian
Genre/Form Authorities Librarian
6728 Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801)422-5568 

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