The r rotunda ⟨ ꝛ ⟩, "rounded r", is a historical calligraphic variant of the minuscule (lowercase) letter Latin r used in full script-like typefaces, especially .
Unlike other letter variants such as "long s" which originally were orthographically distinctive, r rotunda has always been a calligraphic variant, used when the letter followed a letter with a rounded stroke towards the right side, such as , , , (and in typefaces such as Fraktur where this letter has no vertical stroke, and appears similar to ). In this way, it is comparable to numerous other special types used for ligatures or conjoined letters in early modern typesetting.
Form
Like minuscules in general, this shape for r originated in the style of cursive writing that was common during the medieval period, which ultimately derived from scribal practice during Roman cursive.
The r rotunda shape of cursive resembling the numeral is also found in a number of medieval scribal abbreviations containing , for example in the signs for the Latin word-final syllables ram, -orum and -arum.
There are several variant forms for the r rotunda glyph.
A very narrow second variant is found in some Textura manuscripts, in the form of one solid diamond atop another atop a vertical stroke. Another form found in German typefaces is a variant of that previous, with something like part of an resembling an integral sign atop something rather like a . It can be found used as the second of a pair and after . A fifth form, used in the 18th century in some French , was a derivative either of the Schrift form of the minuscule or of similar typefaces used elsewhere. Its form was of a backwards set just after the same shape rotated 180 degrees. They were separated by a space smaller than their stroke width, and the whole character was slanted as though it were cursive. As this typeface has the whose ascender curves to the left (giving it a rounded right side), it was used after that character as well. By then, though, the character was the same width as a regular , so it was maintained because it appeared to its users to have some elegance or to remind them of prestigious old calligraphy.
Use for Tironian et
Demise
Encoding
The letter was added to Unicode in 2005, in the Latin Extended-D block. It is included in Unicode 5.1 in both lower case and upper case forms, although there seems to be no real evidence for the historical existence of a capital version and a normal capital R seems to have been used instead.
Before that, the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative (MUFI) had allocated it in the Private Use Area (PUA) of medievalist fonts at U+F20E and U+F22D. Since the characters are now available in Unicode, MUFI recommends that the Unicode code points be used, not the PUA code points.
Some fonts treat the glyph as a mere stylistic variant of and may make it available by smart font features, e.g. Open Type 'hist', 'hlig', 'calt', 'salt' or 'ss**'.
Latin Extended-D also has characters for medieval scribal abbreviations. Among them is the abbreviation for the syllable rum, consisting of a r rotunda with a cut, resulting in a shape very similar to the astrological symbol for Jupiter . These symbols are encoded as and .
Gallery
See also
- Long s
- Indian rupee sign is based in part on the R rotunda.
External links
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