What (Welsh?) letter is this that appears in this YouTube video?

Cafe Society
1

So, I know that Old and Middle English had several letters that we no longer use–æsc/ash (Ææ), ðæt/eð/edh/eth (Ðð) þorn/thorn (Þþ), ȝogh/yogh (Ȝȝ), œthel/ethel (Œœ) and ƿynn/wynn (Ƿƿ).

But I just came across a YouTube video that shows a new letter regarding documentation of a Welsh region whose historicity has not been confirmed. The letter first appears on screen at (0:40):

In other spellings, the letter seems to be replaced by U or W, but the narrator doesn’t explain the appearance of this letter.

Anyone know anything about this?

2

At a guess, I’d say it’s a scribal abbreviation. That shows up in a lot of hand1written manuscripts, even down to the 17th century.

Since it seems to be filling in for a u or w (w can be a vowel in Welsh), it may just be a quick loop to finish the word, that the reader can easily fill in as they read the page.

3

Paging @Dr.Drake !

4

Looks like a (Middle Welsh) “v” to me:

I confess I am not familiar with Middle Welsh manuscripts, but it does not seem to be in terminal position or to abbreviate anything. Not sure what the difference is between a “normal” “v” and an alternate “v” [ETA Wikipedia says the letter is related to the Anglo-Saxon wynn, so basically a double u (and u = v)]

5

If it’s just a scribal abbreviation, it’s strange to me that the video would use it without explanation. Like if he had used the Tironian et (⁊), I would have expected some explanation. Otherwise, most people would be wondering why there is a number 7 in that text.

6

Ah, perfect. Thank you! I had never encountered this. Odd that the article on Welsh orthography doesn’t mention it.

7

If you mean the Wikipedia article on Welsh Orthography, it does. And if points to the article on Ỽ too.

8

It’s not a V, really, in that it never goes /v/. It’s basically a W. They’re all members of the U-V-W family, though. We call it “wynn” but obviously it’s not the same.

In Modern Welsh, the same letter is W.

9

It does now.

10

That means you are Welsh? Does it have any current use in Wales or in Welsh?

11

I’m not Welsh, but a scholar of things Welsh: those whom I’ve heard discuss the character in a professional context (which was along the lines of “we need to create a wynn for the font we’re using for the book”). This was before it has a place in Unicode (thanks, MUFI [Medieval Unicode Font Initiative]). MUFI, who is a bit more rigorous in this regard, also calls it a V: Medieval Unicode Font Initiative (1EFC and 1EFD).

As far as I know, it is not currently in use in Wales. 1EFA (Medieval Unicode Font Initiative) is, though: Smörgåsbord . Only in graphic design contexts; the siren call of the ordinary keyboard is just too great for unique alphabetical characters.