# Glyphs

*The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 01 Apr 1999*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1473>

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### Roy C. Lackey
*01 Apr 1999, 22:34*

>> William Ansley wrote:
>> This may not be reliable evidence of the letter shapes at all. Since Wolfe
>> "translated" TBotNS from a strange future tongue he probably had to make an
>> adjustment in this passage. For all we know the last two letters in the
>> actual word Severian used (which Wolfe translated as 'last') looked
>> entirely different. We could have had a hoop and a cup rather than a
>> serpent and a sword, just to pick two more objects at random that can
>> conceivably be thought to look like other letters in our alphabet. Which
>> letters? I'll leave that as an exercise for you.<<

    While we're at it, these "glyphs" from "The Tale of the Rose and the
Nightingale (And What Came of It)":

    "...a bent object that might be a whip, a human leg and a foot, a
shallow cup, and a crocodile."

Roy

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