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Is the letter ligatured?

Ligatures are joined up letters. Some can confuse the novice palaeographer, because written together they can look like a single letter. In Scots palaeography the most common problems seem to occur with ligatures containing the letter h. Get to know some common ones: the ch, th, and sh ligatures.

Look at the way letters are ligatured in the words chalder, thousand and parish below.

the words chalder, thousand and parish showing ligatured letters
the words chalder, thousand and parish showing ligatured letters
the words chalder, thousand and parish showing ligatured letters

If this hasn't solved the problem try another option:

Capital letters
Interference
Superscript marks
Double letters
Idiosyncratic letters
Bad writing

Return to the problem letters page.