Latin Variants

[Andrew Dunning]

> On 11 Mar 2016, at 3:45 pm, Arthur Reutenauer <arthur.reutenauer at normalesup.org> wrote:
> 
> Or even modern English, on an anecdotal basis; for example I work next
> to this building, built in 1925: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bush_House_NW.JPG
> 
>  One could argue that the use of 'V' for 'U' is decorative, of course.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (s.v. 'J'), it wasn’t until the seventeenth century that English writers came to distinguish between I and J, and there were dictionaries printed well into the nineteenth century that listed words beginning with the two letters together.

All best,

Andrew