Ta hecnepiwtika rpammata (WHATL)

Ta hecnepıɷtıká rpámmata — τα έσπεριωτικα γραμματα

The Hesperiotic letterforms

ΑΒΓΔΕFΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡCΤUȢYΦΧΨΩͰ
abrdefʒƞøıkրmvꝣonpctuɣyȹxɯɷh

(Click here if you only see rectangular boxes above!)

The lower-case letters seen above are the so-called Hesperiotic letterforms which were commonly used in Western Europe of the WHATL between the fifteenth and mid eighteenth centuries, themselves closely based on letterforms in use in Gaul and Italy between the ninth and twelfth centuries. They were replaced by typefaces based on the Eastern Mediterranean so-called Helladic letterforms of the late Byzantine Empire which during the Neoclassicism of the eighteenth century were believed to reflect a more authentic Hellenic spirit. The Hesperiotic letterforms were not a separate alphabet but rather a stylistic variant of the Hellenic alphabet like Blackletter and Antiqua are variants of the Latin alphabet in OTL (and to be sure there were Blackletter forms of the Hellenic alphabet in WHATL!) Early in the 18^th

century the Cyrillic alphabet switched over to letterforms based on the West European Hesperiotic just as it switched over to Antiqua-based forms in OTL, and in WHATL the Russians clung to these Hesperiotic-based forms even after Western Europe shortly after switched over to Helladic letterforms, so ironically Hesperiotic in contemporary WHATL is mostly used to suggest a 'Cyrillic' feel. Thus WHATL magazine readers will se advertisements for Pɣccık fodka rather than  Ρɤσσικ ϝοδκα as it is normally written in contemporary WHATL Εγγλισχ.  Some Hesperiotic letterforms lingered on in western handwriting, notably ƒ

rather than ϝ, which had become obsolete in the Helladic language already in antiquity. This letter is also normally called ϝαυ rather than the Helladic διγαμμα. Furthermore western languages used no less than three derivatives of υ as distinct letters, and these — uɣy — were naturally retained, although in 'Helladicized' shapes: υɤυ̢.