Adrian Goldwetter
I'm really sad to hear that! Both! gregory!
And the rest of your reply makes no sense because jmd was wrong all along with his opinion on the medieval use of the "V" that you quoted (and I'm not talking about his orthography here concerning medieval matters):
That here complete quoted statement from jmd is simply NOT true.
It is MUCH more complicated.
Because:
The "V":
For more detailed info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V
The "U":
For more detailed info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U
The source: The Phoenician alphabet
For more detailed info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet
The WAW that is the origin of Greek Ϝ (digamma), Υ (upsilon) and Latin F, V and the derived letters U, W, Y:
For more detailed info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waw_(letter)
Please note that I only quote from Wikipedia on most occasions to demonstrate that the truth is out there and on the very surface of the ocean of wisdom like a shipload of extra virgin olive oil what could be a start for a wise and healthy diet of thought at your/mine/everybody's fingertips - IF you/me/everybody cares to LOOK and not simply to BELIEVE what someone has SAID.
You may have noticed also that I did edit this reply.
When you should stumble upon my quote from your quote from jmd's quote you should note that I added this time the
part here because it is of specific importance for his handle on the matter.
Yours truly
Adrina
And the rest of your reply makes no sense because jmd was wrong all along with his opinion on the medieval use of the "V" that you quoted (and I'm not talking about his orthography here concerning medieval matters):
...the 'v' being the same as a 'u' in mediaeval texts
That here complete quoted statement from jmd is simply NOT true.
It is MUCH more complicated.
Because:
The "V":
History
Ancient Corinthian vase depicting Perseus, Andromeda and Ketos. The inscriptions denoting the depicted persons are written in an archaic form of the Greek alphabet. Perseus (Greek: ΠΕΡΣΕΥΣ) is inscribed as ΠΕΡΣΕVΣ (from right to left), using V to represent the vowel .
The letter V comes from the Semitic letter Waw, as do the modern letters F, U, W, and Y.[2] See F for details.
In Greek, the letter upsilon 'Υ' was adapted from waw to represent, at first, the vowel as in "moon". This was later fronted to [y], the front rounded vowel spelled 'ü' in German.
In Latin, a stemless variant shape of the upsilon was borrowed in early times as V—either directly from the Western Greek alphabet or from the Etruscan alphabet as an intermediary—to represent the same /u/ sound, as well as the consonantal /w/. Thus, 'num' — originally spelled 'NVM' — was pronounced /num/ and 'via' was pronounced [ˈwia]. From the 1st century AD on, depending on Vulgar Latin dialect, consonantal /w/ developed into /β/ (kept in Spanish), then later to /v/.
During the Late Middle Ages, two forms of 'v' developed, which were both used for its ancestor /u/ and modern /v/. The pointed form 'v' was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form 'u' was used in the middle or end, regardless of sound. So whereas 'valour' and 'excuse' appeared as in modern printing, 'have' and 'upon' were printed as 'haue' and 'vpon'. The first distinction between the letters 'u' and 'v' is recorded in a Gothic script from 1386, where 'v' preceded 'u'. By the mid-16th century, the 'v' form was used to represent the consonant and 'u' the vowel sound, giving us the modern letter 'u'. Capital 'U' was not accepted as a distinct letter until many years later.[3]
For more detailed info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V
The "U":
History
The letter u ultimately comes from the Phoenician letter Waw by way of the letter y. See the letter y for details.
During the late Middle Ages, two forms of 'v' developed, which were both used for its ancestor 'u' and modern 'v'. The pointed form 'v' was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form 'u' was used in the middle or end, regardless of sound. So whereas 'valour' and 'excuse' appeared as in modern printing, 'have' and 'upon' were printed 'haue' and 'vpon'. The first recorded use of 'u' and 'v' as distinct letters is in a Gothic alphabet from 1386, where 'v' preceded 'u'. Printers eschewed capital 'U' into the 17th century and the distinction between the two letters was not fully accepted by the French Academy until 1762.[3]
For more detailed info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U
The source: The Phoenician alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, is the oldest verified alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet contains 22 letters, all of which are consonants, and is described as an abjad,[3] with matres lectionis being used for some vowels in certain late varieties. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia.
The Phoenician alphabet is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs [4] and became one of the most widely used writing systems, spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world, where it evolved and was assimilated by many other cultures. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet was directly derived from Phoenician. Another derivative script is the Aramaic alphabet, which was the ancestor of the modern Arabic script. The Modern Hebrew script is a stylistic variant of the Aramaic script. The Greek alphabet (and by extension its descendants such as the Latin, the Cyrillic, and the Coptic) was also derived from Phoenician.
As the letters were originally incised with a stylus, most of the shapes are angular and straight, although more cursive versions are increasingly attested in later times, culminating in the Neo-Punic alphabet of Roman-era North Africa. Phoenician was usually written from right to left, although there are some texts written in boustrophedon.
In 2005, the UNESCO registered the Phoenician alphabet into the Memory of the World Programme as a heritage of Lebanon.[5]
For more detailed info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet
The WAW that is the origin of Greek Ϝ (digamma), Υ (upsilon) and Latin F, V and the derived letters U, W, Y:
Waw (wāw "hook") is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician wāw Phoenician waw.svg, Aramaic waw Waw.svg, Hebrew vav (also vau) ו, Syriac waw ܘ and Arabic wāw و (sixth in abjadi order; 27th in modern Arabic order).
It represents the consonant [w] (in Modern Hebrew also [v]) and the vowel .
For more detailed info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waw_(letter)
Please note that I only quote from Wikipedia on most occasions to demonstrate that the truth is out there and on the very surface of the ocean of wisdom like a shipload of extra virgin olive oil what could be a start for a wise and healthy diet of thought at your/mine/everybody's fingertips - IF you/me/everybody cares to LOOK and not simply to BELIEVE what someone has SAID.
You may have noticed also that I did edit this reply.
When you should stumble upon my quote from your quote from jmd's quote you should note that I added this time the
...in mediaeval texts
part here because it is of specific importance for his handle on the matter.
Yours truly
Adrina