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

[Jessie Sherwood]

Also, to my eye, the bottom two examples under ampersand look more like
Tironian ets with swanky approach strokes than e-t ligatures.

On Mon, 20 Sept 2021 at 12:43, Jessie Sherwood <jcsherwood at law.berkeley.edu>
wrote:

> 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
>
>

-- 
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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