Exactly.  As anyone who studied "classical" Latin in public high school
(as opposed to "church" Latin) can tell you, Caesar never said "Veni,
vidi, vici" but something more like "weenie, weedy, weaky" -- which the
Britons thought was how he was describing them, so they all gave up and
went home, and thus the Romans ruled Britannia.  (with apologies to
Sellars & Yeatman.)  

A. H. Haeberle 


-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Wood, Thomas J
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 10:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Why was a "V" chiseled into buildings instead of a "U"?

Except -- the Romans routinely carved O's and Q's and S's and other
"curvey" letters into stone. "U" would have been no more difficult. They
used "V" simply because that's how they wrote the letter (which
represented both the "u" sound and the "w" sound -- there was no "v"
sound in Latin). 


Thomas J. VVood
Archivist
Archives/Special Collections LIB 144
University of Illinois at Springfield
One University Plaza, MS BRK 140
Springfield IL 62703-5407
217-206-6520 | [log in to unmask] | <http://www.uis.edu/archives/>


-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Maarja Krusten
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 8:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Why was a "V" chiseled into buildings instead of a "U"?

Excellent point, Christine (pun intended).  Another reader said the same
thing in an off list message to me and Paul yesterday evening.

This is such an interesting list, you never know what you're going to
hear and learn about.  Thanks for posting!

Maarja

>>> Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer <[log in to unmask]> 3/2/2006 
>>> 8:56:48 AM >>>
In addition to what the Treasury Department says, a major reason why a V
would be used for U in an inscription cut in stone is that the angle of
a V is a lot easier to chisel than the curve of a U. If you see Latin
inscriptions on the Roman era buildings in Italy, you'll see the same
convention.

Christine

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