Dr Danny Bate @dannybate.com · May 19

My interest is most piqued by Oscan's use of double letters for long vowels, here in "aamanaffed" (third line, maybe meaning 'ordered'). English has made use of this technique (e.g. 'meet', 'moon'), and it was an option for the Romans too – see Latin "naatam" around the corner in the same gallery.

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Replies

En Bee · May 19

I've been told that the fada in Irish comes from a medieval shorthand for doubled vowels, e.g., "aa" -> "á".

Dr Rob · May 19

We didn't half cock ours up with the Great Vowel Shift, though 😭