Reversed half H

The reversed half H (Ꟶ or ꟶ) 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
Phonetic usageh
Unicode codepointU+A7F5, U+A7F6
Alphabetical positionH
History
Development
O6
N24
V28
Time periodRoman Gaul
SistersH Ⱶ
Transliteration equivalentsH
Other
Other letters commonly used withC P T
Writing directionLeft-to-Right

History
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 Ꟶ and the previous and following letter.[2]

  • A rectangular block of stone with a Latin inscription.
    Roman stela with a Latin inscription (CIL XIII 1853) including "C ꟵEREN‍Nꟾ" (c(enturia) Herenni(i), "the centuria of Herennius"); Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon.
  • A square block of stone with a Latin inscription and a floral border.
    Funeral altar with a Latin inscription (CIL XII 3203) including "PARTꟵENIUS" (Parthenius); Archeological Museum of Nîmes.

Unicode

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
PreviewꟵꟶ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER REVERSED HALF H LATIN SMALL LETTER REVERSED HALF H
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode42997U+A7F542998U+A7F6
UTF-8234 159 181EA 9F B5234 159 182EA 9F B6
Numeric character referenceꟵꟵꟶꟶ

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ꟶ.

References
  1. West & Everson (2019), p. 3.
  2. 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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