The History of the Letter- R by : Rula Darawshy Presented in the course: Development of English Prof. Penny Ur

Origin The Egyptian Hieroglyphs( Sacred Carvings) in about 1800 B.C. These pictographs were used to represent holy words and sounds. The letter was carved on the Rossetta stone in Wadi el- Hol, resembling a human “head”. The symbol was called “ro”

On the stone: Two figures- the early R and the early B(9) would spell R-B, That is the Semitic word reb ( chief) from right to left. The ancient Semitic word reb connects linguistically to the Hebrew- English word rabbi Proto- Semitic pictograph

The Phoenician The Phoenician resh- of about 1000B.C. The Phoenician sign for the ‘r’ sound was called “resh,” their word for head. There was a drastic reduction in shape to simplify yet still suggests a head in profile.

Greeks- rho By 900 B.C. the Greeks had adapted the Phoenician letter and called it “rho.” The word “rho” meant nothing. The Greeks reversed the orientation of the head’s left-facing profile. But they also converted the curve of the face into an angular form. It looked like our P.( In Cyrrillic alphabet as Russian, Serbian- the R still looks like the P.

It is likely that some Etruscan and Western Greek forms of the letter added the extra stroke to distinguish it from a later form of the letter P.

The Romans borrowed the alphabet from the Greeks differentiation via the Etruscans. They added a stroke into the bowl liked a curved tail to distinguish the R from the P. It remains the trademark feature of our modern R. [. [.

The lower-case form- r The minuscule (lower-case) form of r developed through several variations on the capital form. It emerged in the semi-uncial handwriting style, an early medieval Latin, to simplify writing and to save time and effort. The letter appeared in Old English.

Pronunciation: Linguists divide all English language pronunciation into two accent groups: Pronunciation: Linguists divide all English language pronunciation into two accent groups: ** Rhotic speakers: pronounce the R as written even after a vowel as far, work. ** Nonrhotic speakers: don’t pronounce the R unless a vowel follows as in Far and wide. ** The letter has a variety of sounds.( basically regional) ** It mainly represents the alveolar trill or alveolar as in English. ** Doubling is common

Alternative representations of R [. [.