glyph [d] as a substitute for [p] and [f]

[geoffreycaveney]

On the first point only: can we statistically show that [p, f] + [d] on the first line of paragraphs is the same as [d] in other lines? Assuming that your proposed values are evenly spread throughout the text, we should still see lower rates of [d] where [p, f] occur.

Emma, to answer this question requires a complete and detailed statistical analysis which will take some time and effort to perform. It is a simple matter to note that [p, f] tend to occur in the first lines of paragraphs but not elsewhere: clearly the first lines only constitute a limited minority of the total text, and it is equally clear that a substantial majority of [p, f] occur in these lines. But to analyze the relative frequency of [d], in these first lines vs. elsewhere, is a more complicated undertaking. I will work on it, but it will take some time.

For now, however, I will note a couple other observations I have made, just in my initial investigation into this question:

I see a tendency in the initial pages of the ms for [e] and [ch] to occur less frequently on the first line of paragraphs than they do elsewhere. Conversely, [sh] seems more likely to occur on the first line of paragraphs than it does elsewhere.

Now I hasten to add that this is just an initial provisional observation based on limited data. Nevertheless, I think it is worth mentioning.