[lit-ideas] I Lunga (Was: Roman Alphabet)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 13:38:03 EST
In a message dated 12/18/2004 1:03:02 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
So what did the Romans overuse?
And, by the way, is it possible to write someone's name and use only Roman
numerals?
----
Dunno. What I recently learned was that _my_ initials, in Latin, J. L. would
be spelt "I longa", "Ele". The "J" was called "I longa" because in writing,
the Romans did make it longer than the "I" (or capital "i"). Or so I read in
R. Penny, The History of the Spanish Language:
"The sound represented by the "I" in words like "MAIUS", "PEIUS",
etc., was evidently a geminate in Vulgar Latin. This conclusion
is based on the spelling of such words in inscriptions with
a double-height I ("I longa")."
(Cambridge Univ. Press., p. 55).
"I longa" (Latin) come out as "I lunga" in Italian -- and as "Jay" in
American.
Cheers,
J. L.
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