[DCRM-L] Tironian "et" revisited: not an ampersand

[Jessie Sherwood]

 Is it time to move the Tironian sign "et" into DCRMR's "Brevigraphs"
chart, leaving "&" behind in the "Early letterforms and symbols" chart?

I think so. As you say, the Tironian et and the ampersand are not at all
the same thing: & is a ligature, while the Tironian et is part an early
form of shorthand.


On Mon, 20 Sept 2021 at 11:34, Erin Blake <erin.blake.folger at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Julie Kemper posed an excellent question on the Folger blog post about
> Brevigraphs <https://collation.folger.edu/brevigraphs> last week, "
>
>> One question I have is why ampersands and Tironian notes are treated the
>> same. To me they are separate symbols and ampersands should be transcribed
>> as “&” while Tironian notes should be transcribed as “[et]”. Am I being
>> overly pedantic about something which hardly anyone cares about?
>
>
> That gave me a deja-vu feeling, so I went to the DCRM-L archives, and sure
> enough, back in 2003
> <https://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/2003-March/000423.html>,
> then again in 2011
> <https://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/2011-August/002495.html>,
> and again in 2013
> <https://listserver.lib.byu.edu/pipermail/dcrm-l/2013-September/003226.html>
> the collective "we" of this list identified the instruction to transcribe a
> Tironian sign “et” (⁊) as an ampersand as a problem: mounting evidence
> showed that "[et]" would be a more appropriate transcription than "&"  but
> the problem was set aside until "the joint DCRM" was being written. In
> other words, the time is now.
>
> Looking back at the discussions, I think the problem originated because
> gothic type ampersands (in no. 1 of the blog post, an "e" and "t" combined)
> were being conflated with the Tironian sign "et" (no. 8, short-hand
> representation of the sound "et"):
>
>> *1.* * [image: &]*
>> *[ampersand]*This is the easy one. Ampersands are still in use today, so
>> instead of expanding the brevigraph *&* in square brackets, rare
>> materials catalogers simply use an ampersand.
>> [image: &]= & (Latin, see in context
>> <http://collation.folger.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/Ampersand_in_context.jpg>
>> )
>> = & (English, see in context
>> <http://collation.folger.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/et_in_context.jpg>
>> )
>>   = &c. (Latin, see in context
>> <http://collation.folger.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/etc_in_context.jpg>
>> )
>> *8.  *[image: Tironian sign et]
>> *[7 at beginning of word]*An alternative shape for *&*, but actually the Tironian
>> short hand <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tironian_notes> symbol *⁊*,
>> which represents the *sound* “et” (rather than the word as such). If a
>> particular font didn’t have a dedicated Tironian sign et, then *ꝛ* (a
>> small “r rotunda <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_rotunda>“) could be
>> used. Because the symbol is a representation of *&* and because *&* is
>> still used today, rare materials catalogers silently replace it with *&*.
>> See no. 1 for ampersandy ampersands.
>> [image: Tironian sign et]= & (Latin, see in context
>> <http://collation.folger.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/Tironian_sign_et_in_context.jpg>
>> )
>> [image: &[cetera]]= &[cetera] (Latin, with r-rotunda, see in context
>> <http://collation.folger.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/09/etcetera_in_context.jpg>;
>> see no. 3 for [cetera])
>
> Is it time to move the Tironian sign "et" into DCRMR's "Brevigraphs"
> chart, leaving "&" behind in the "Early letterforms and symbols" chart?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Erin.
>
> ______________________
> Erin Blake, Ph.D.  |  Senior Cataloger  |  Folger Shakespeare Library  |
> 201 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC, 20003  |  eblake at folger.edu  |
> www.folger.edu
> <https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/-t5RCjRgpBtArRXC7R7_2?domain=urldefense.com>
>   |  Pronouns: she/her/hers
>
>
>


-- 
Jessie Sherwood, Ph.D., MLIS
Associate Librarian
The Robbins Collection
UC Berkeley, School of Law
Tel: 510.643.1236
jcsherwood at law.berkeley.edu
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