View source for R rotunda

{{Short description|Variant of the Latin letter R (ꝛ)}}
[[File:Latin letter R rotunda.svg|thumb|Latin R rotunda]]
[[File:Half r from malmesbury bible.jpg|thumb|right|An r rotunda (the middle letter) in the word "quadraginta" in a Latin Bible of AD 1407, on display in [[Malmesbury Abbey]], Wiltshire, England]]
{{orthography notation}}

The '''r rotunda''' <nowiki>⟨</nowiki> ꝛ <nowiki>⟩</nowiki>, "rounded r", is a historical calligraphic variant of the minuscule (lowercase) letter Latin ''[[r]]'' used in full script-like typefaces, especially [[blackletter]]s.

Unlike other letter variants such as "[[long s]]" which originally were orthographically distinctive, ''r rotunda'' has always been a calligraphic variant, used when the letter {{angbr|r}} followed a letter with a rounded stroke towards the right side, such as {{angbr|o}}, {{angbr|b}}, {{angbr|p}}, {{angbr|h}} (and {{angbr|d}} in typefaces such as [[Fraktur]] where this letter has no vertical stroke, and appears similar to {{angbr|𝔡}}). In this way, it is comparable to numerous other special types used for [[ligature (writing)|ligatures]] or [[conjoined letters]] in early modern typesetting.

== Form ==
[[File:Pablo-Hurus-Zaragoza-1496-annotated.png|thumb|upright 2.0|Example from [[incunabula|early printing]], from a page printed by  [[Pablo Hurus]] in  1496 in Zaragoza, Spain. The sample includes the types for ''r rotunda'' (marked red),  ordinary ''r'' (marked green), and Tironian ''et'' (marked blue).]]
[[File:Caslon-specimen-1763-double-pica-black.jpg|thumb|Example from 18th-century typesetting in England, ''William Caslon & Son's Specimen'' printed by [[William Caslon|William Caslon I]] (1692–1766) in 1763 in London.  The sample shows ''r rotunda'' used in the words ''or'', ''Mayors'' and ''corporate''. Also seen in this sample are the {{angbr|ff}} and {{angbr|ct}} ligatures.]]
This symbol came in several different shapes, all of which were of [[x-height]]. 
The shape of the letter used in [[blackletter]] scripts [[Textualis]] as well as [[Rotunda (script)|Rotunda]] is reminiscent of "half an r", namely, the right side of the Roman capital {{angbr|R}}; it also looks similar to an [[Arabic numerals|Arabic numeral]] {{angbr|2}}.

Like minuscules in general, this shape for r originated in the style of [[cursive]] writing that was common during the medieval period, which ultimately derived from scribal practice during [[Roman cursive|Late Antiquity]].

The ''r rotunda'' shape of cursive {{angbr|r}} resembling the numeral {{angbr|2}} is also found in a number of medieval [[scribal abbreviation]]s containing {{angbr|r}}, for example in the signs for the Latin word-final syllables 
''ram'', ''-orum'' and ''-arum''.

There are several variant forms for the ''r rotunda'' glyph.

A very narrow second variant is found in some [[Textura]] manuscripts, in the form of one solid diamond atop another atop a vertical stroke.
Another form found in German typefaces is a variant of that previous, with something like part of an {{angbr|s}} resembling an [[integral sign]] atop something rather like a {{angbr|c}}. It can be found used as the second {{angbr|r}} of a pair and after {{angbr|e}}.
A fifth form, used in the 18th century in some French [[italic type]]faces, was a derivative either of the [[Sütterlin|Schrift]] form of the minuscule {{angbr|r}} or of similar typefaces used elsewhere. Its form was of a backwards {{angbr|J}} set just after the same shape rotated 180 degrees. They were separated by a space smaller than their stroke width, and the whole character was slanted as though it were cursive. As this typeface has the {{angbr|d}} whose ascender curves to the left (giving it a rounded right side), it was used after that character as well. By then, though, the character was the same width as a regular {{angbr|r}}, so it was maintained because it appeared to its users to have some elegance or to remind them of prestigious old calligraphy.
{{clr}}
==Use for Tironian ''et''==
[[File:Et cetera r rotunda.svg|thumb|upright 0.5|Example of ''etc.'' typeset with {{nobr|''r rotunda''}} in a [[Fraktur]] typeface]]
The abbreviation [[etc.]] was typeset using the [[Tironian notes|Tironian ''et'']] {{angbr|⁊}}, as {{angbr|⁊c.}} in early [[incunable]]s. 
Later, when typesets no longer contained a [[sort (typesetting)|sort]] for the Tironian ''et'', it became common practice to use the ''r rotunda'' glyph instead, setting {{angbr|ꝛc.}} for ''etc.''

== Demise ==
Use of this form of r was never widespread except in blackletter scripts, so it fell out of use in English in the 16th century as roman scripts became predominant. Some modern [[cursive]] scripts use a letter {{angbr|r}} that has a resemblance to the r rotunda.

==Encoding==
In Unicode, the character is encoded as {{unichar|A75A|Latin Capital Letter R Rotunda}} and {{unichar|A75B|Latin Small Letter R Rotunda}}

The letter was added to [[Unicode]] in 2005, in the [[Latin Extended-D]] block.<ref name="prelim">{{cite web |first1=Michael |last1=Everson |first2=Odd Einar |last2=Haugen |first3=António |last3=Emiliano |first4=Susana |last4=Pedro |first5=Florian |last5=Grammel |first6=Peter |last6=Baker |first7=Andreas |last7=Stötzner |first8=Marcus |last8=Dohnicht |first9=Diana |last9=Luft |url=http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2957.pdf |title=Preliminary proposal to add medievalist characters to the UCS |year=2005 |access-date=2005-08-11 |archive-date=2006-02-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060217142251/http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2957.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> It is included in Unicode 5.1 in both lower case and upper case forms,<ref name="unicode 5.1">{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UA720.pdf |title=Latin Extended-D |website=unicode.org}}</ref> although there seems to be no real evidence for the historical existence of a capital version and a normal capital ''R'' seems to have been used instead.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2006/07/r-rotunda-part-2.html|title=R Rotunda Part 2|last=West|first=Andrew|date=2006-07-24|website=BabelStone Blog|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-02-09}}</ref>

Before that, the [[Medieval Unicode Font Initiative]] (MUFI) had allocated it in the [[Private Use Area]] (PUA) of medievalist fonts at U+F20E and U+F22D.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://folk.uib.no/hnooh/mufi/specs/MUFI-CodeChart-3-0.pdf|title=MUFI Code Chart Order Version 3.0 |date=5 July 2009 |editor-last=Haugen |editor-first=Odd Einar |publisher=[[University of Bergen]] |isbn=978-82-8088-403-9|access-date=24 March 2019}}</ref> Since the characters are now available in Unicode, MUFI recommends that the Unicode code points be used, not the PUA code points.

Some fonts treat the glyph as a mere stylistic variant of {{angbr|r}} and may make it available by [[list of typographic features|smart font feature]]s, e.g. Open Type 'hist', 'hlig', 'calt', 'salt' or 'ss**'.

[[Latin Extended-D]] also has characters for medieval [[scribal abbreviation]]s. Among them is the abbreviation for the syllable ''rum'', consisting of a  ''r rotunda'' with a cut, resulting in a shape very similar to the [[astrological symbol]] for Jupiter {{angbr|♃}}. These symbols are encoded as {{unichar|A75C|Latin Capital Letter Rum Rotunda}} and {{unichar|A75D|Latin Small Letter Rum Rotunda}}.

==Gallery==
{{gallery 
|file:Half-r-comparison.svg|Comparison of the r rotunda and the normal r in the Leeds Uni typeface
|File:R rotunda in different fonts.svg|The letter pair {{smallcaps|latin capital/small letter r rotunda}} rendered in different [[typeface]]s. 
|File:Geneva r rotunda.png|Few sans-serif fonts include an r rotunda. An exception is Apple's typeface [[Geneva (typeface)|Geneva]], included with [[MacOS]].
|File:Calibri r rotunda.svg|Calibri, included with [[Windows]] Vista and newer, also has an r rotunda.
}}


==See also==
* [[Long s]]
* [[Indian rupee sign]] {{char|{{INR}} }} is based in part on the R rotunda.

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Latin script}}

{{LetterR}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:R Rotunda}}
[[Category:Blackletter]]
[[Category:Typography]]
[[Category:Palaeographic letters]]