The Rest of the Alphabet
The Da'ud Notation System
[This article was written by Master Da'ud ibn Auda and Master Talan Gwynek for the February 1996 LOAR. With two noted exceptions, comments in brackets are from the annotater, Seigneur Blaise de Cormeilles. This article is available at this website through the efforts of Blaise de Cormeilles blaise(AT)scadian.net and Teceangl Bach tierna(AT)agora.rdrop.com. Originally annotated and approved in Feb 1999; last modified in Oct 2001.]
Some time ago Laurel proposed a simple scheme for representing non-ASCII characters by combinations of two ASCII characters enclosed in curly braces. For example, for ó [lower-case letter o with acute accent] and ò [lower-case letter o with grave accent] he proposed the representations {o'} and {'o}, respectively. Others subsequently proposed other schemes that are already in wide use, among them HTML and TEX, and Harpy noted that we might at some point need representations for letters not mentioned by Laurel. Nevertheless, its quasi-pictorial nature makes Laurel's scheme easy to learn, and the basic idea appears to be capable of considerable extension if necessary. Moreover, Morsulus has very recently begun to make use of it in his database, and several members of the College are already using it or a slight variant in their e-mail. (Rather than {o:} for ö [lower-case letter o with umlaut], some are using {o"}, and similarly for other instances of the diæresis [di{ae}resis] or umlaut. [{not added by the annotater} Laurel himself has been convinced that {o"} is the more widely used convention.]) This being the case, we see no reason not to go ahead and make Laurel's original scheme a CoA standard for ASCII representation of non-ASCII characters, with extensions to be defined as needed.
We have for some time been able to print such characters as ü [u umlaut], ê [lower-case letter e with circumflex], ó [small letter o with acute accent], à [small letter a with grave accent] etc. in the LoAR; these letters have been correctly registered even if this fact wasn't necessarily apparent in the Armorial. But we have not heretofore allowed the letters ð (edh) and þ (thorn) to be registered, though they also can be printed in the LoAR. With the adoption of a standard ASCII representation, this restriction seems unnecessary, especially considering that these letters were more frequently used in period than many that we routinely allow. This month we have therefore registered two names with the letter ð [{dh}], Freydís Kausi Fiðyardóttir [Freyd{i'}s Kausi Fi{dh}yard{o'}ttir] (An Tir) and Ragnarr Grásíða [Gr{a'}s{i'}{dh}a] (Middle), in each case taking our cue from the submitter's forms. Please note, therefore, that it is no longer necessary to choose an arbitrary transliteration of these letters in submitting an Old Norse or Old English name. Of course, period transliterations are still acceptable as well.
[{not added by the annotater} For those of you who do not recall the list of equivalents, it is reproduced here. {It has been further expanded by the annotater.}]
á = {a'} [lower-case letter a with acute accent]
à = {'a} [lower-case letter a with grave accent]
â = {a^} [lower-case letter a with circumflex]
ä = {a"} [lower-case letter a with umlaut]
å = {ao} [lower-case letter a with ring accent]
ã = {a~} [lower-case letter a with tilde]
æ = {ae} [lower-case ae ligature]
Á = {A'} [capital letter A with acute accent]
À = {'A} [capital letter A with grave accent]
 = {A^} [capital letter A with circumflex]
Ä = {A"} [capital letter A with umlaut]
Å = {Ao} [capital letter A with ring]
à = {A~} [capital letter A with tilde]
Æ = {AE} [capital AE ligature]
ç = {c,} [lower-case letter c with cedilla]
Ç = {C,} [capital letter C with cedilla]
é = {e'} [lower-case letter e with acute accent]
è = {'e} [lower-case letter e with grave accent]
ê = {e^} [lower-case letter e with circumflex]
ë = {e"} [lower-case letter e with umlaut]
É = {E'} [capital letter E with acute accent]
È = {'E} [capital letter E with grave accent]
Ê = {E^} [capital letter E with circumflex]
Ë = {E"} [capital letter E with umlaut]
í = {i'} [lower-case letter i with acute accent]
ì = {'i} [lower-case letter i with grave accent]
î = {i^} [lower-case letter i with circumflex]
ï = {i"} [lower-case letter i with umlaut]
Í = {I'} [capital letter I with acute accent]
Ì = {'I} [capital letter I with grave accent]
Î = {I^} [capital letter I with circumflex]
Ï = {I"} [capital letter I with umlaut]
ñ = {n~} [lower-case letter n with tilde]
Ñ = {N~} [capital letter N with tilde]
ó = {o'} [lower-case letter o with acute accent]
ò = {'o} [lower-case letter o with grave accent]
ô = {o^} [lower-case letter o with circumflex]
ö = {o"} [lower-case letter o with umlaut]
ø = (o/} [lower-case letter o with slash]
õ = (o~} [lower-case letter o with tilde]
Ó = {O'} [capital letter O with acute accent]
Ò = {'O} [capital letter O with grave accent]
Ô = {O^} [capital letter O with circumflex]
Ö = {O"} [capital letter O with umlaut]
Ø = {O/} [capital letter O with slash]
Õ = {O~} [capital letter O with tilde]
ß = {sz} [esszet - german sharp s; looks like a lower-case beta.]
ú = {u'} [lower-case letter u with acute accent]
ù = {'u} [lower-case letter u with grave accent]
û = {u^} [lower-case letter u with circumflex]
ü = {u"} [lower-case letter u with umlaut]
Ú = {U'} [capital letter U with acute accent]
Ù = {'U} [capital letter U with grave accent]
Û = {U^} [capital letter U with circumflex]
Ü = {U"} [capital letter U with umlaut]
ý = {y'} [lower-case letter y with acute accent]
ÿ = {y"} [lower-case letter y with umlaut]
Ý = {Y'} [capital letter Y with acute accent]
ð = {dh} [edh - looks like a d with the ascender curled over and a line
through the ascender]
Ð = {DH} [capital edh - looks like a capital D with a dash through the
straight line.]
þ = {th} [thorn - looks like a lower-case b merged with a lowercase p -
one loop with both ascender and descender on the left side.]
Þ = {TH} [capital thorn - looks like a capital I with a semicircle half
its height centered on the right side, or a half height capital D centered on a
capital I.]
[The following characters cannot be reliably reproduced in HTML (or in most
standard fonts):]
yogh = {gh} [looks like a script z or a fancy 3.]
C caron = {Cv} [capital letter C with caron (inverted circumflex over the letter)]
OE ligature (Œ) = {OE} [capital ligature OE]
S acute = {S'} [capital letter S with acute accent]
S caron (Š) = {Sv} [capital letter S with caron]
Z caron = {Zv} [capital letter Z with caron]
a macron = {a-} [lower-case letter a with macron]
b topbar = {b-} [lower-case letter b with top bar]
c caron = {cv} [lower-case letter c with caron]
e ogonek = {e,} [lower-case letter e with ogonek]
e macron = {e-} [lower-case letter e with macron]
e caron = {ev} [lower-case letter e with caron]
i macron = {i-} [lower-case letter i with macron]
l stroke = {l/} [lower-case letter l with stroke]
m dot = {m.} [lower-case letter m with dot below]
n acute = {n'} [lower-case letter n with acute accent]
n dot = {n.} [lower-case letter n with dot below]
o ogonek = {o,} [lower-case letter o with ogonek]
o macron = {o-} [lower-case letter o with macron]
oe ligature (œ) = {oe} [lower-case ligature oe]
r caron = {rv} [lower-case letter r with caron]
s dot = {s.} [lower-case letter s with dot below]
s caron (š) = {sv} [lower-case letter s with caron]
u ogonek = {u,} [lower-case letter u with ogonek]
u macron = {u-} [lower-case letter u with macron]
w circumflex = {w^} [lower-case letter w with circumflex]
Y umlaut (Ÿ) = {Y"} [lower-case letter y with umlaut]
y circumflex = {y^} [lower-case letter y with circumflex]
y tilde = {y~} [lower-case letter y with tilde]
z acute = {z'} [lower-case letter z with acute accent]
z caron = {zv} [lower-case letter z with caron]