The reversed half H ( or ) was an epigraphic letter used in Latin inscriptions from Roman Gaul. In French epigraphy works, it is called H dimidiée, "halved H".

Reversed half H
Ꟶ ꟶ
Uppercase reversed half H.
Usage
TypeAlphabet
Language of originLatin
Sound values[h]
In UnicodeU+A7F5, U+A7F6
Alphabetical positionH
History
Development
O6
N24
V28
Time periodRoman Gaul
SistersH
TransliterationsH
Other
Associated graphsC P T
Writing directionLeft-to-Right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

History

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Egyptian hieroglyph
fence
Proto-Sinaitic
ḥaṣr
Phoenician
Heth
Greek
Heta
Etruscan
H
Latin
H
N24
      
  
   

It is derived from the right part of ⟨H⟩. It represents the aspirate h or rough breathing. It is found at the beginning of words, and following c, p, and t, in words which have an original Greek χ (chi), φ (phi) or θ (theta). It may or not be related to the characters and used by Aristophanes of Byzantium to represent the rough breathing and smooth breathing of Greek around 200 BC.[1]

The half H is found in Latin inscriptions of Gaul, particularly the areas of Lugdunum (Lyon) and Nemausus (Nîmes) in modern France. Of the variant forms of H found in inscriptions, the reversed half H is the only one commonly distinguished from the ordinary H in diplomatic transcriptions.[2]

A few authors have considered the reversed half H to be a ligature of H with the preceding letter, but Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum and catalogues of local inscriptions treat the reversed half H as a distinct letter. There are cases of clear PH, NTH, HI, HE, HR ligatures but, in others, there is visible space between and the previous and following letter.[2]

Unicode

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The letter was introduced in Unicode 13 (March 2020).[3] While the inscriptions show only uppercase forms, a lowercase version has also been entered into Unicode to allow epigraphists to discuss words in appropriate cases. It is named "reversed" to distinguish it from the previously encoded Claudian letter half H ⟨Ⱶ⟩.


Character information
Preview
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER REVERSED HALF H LATIN SMALL LETTER REVERSED HALF H
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 42997 U+A7F5 42998 U+A7F6
UTF-8 234 159 181 EA 9F B5 234 159 182 EA 9F B6
Numeric character reference Ꟶ Ꟶ ꟶ ꟶ

See also

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References

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  1. ^ West & Everson (2019), p. 3.
  2. ^ a b West & Everson (2019), p. 4.
  3. ^ "Latin Extended-D Range: A720–A7FFThe Unicode Standard, Version 13" (PDF). Unicode. 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2022.

Works cited

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