[split] EVA-y as Latin "-us" etc.

[cvetkakocj@rogers.com]

The y symbol in Latin represents con/com at the beginnings of words and us/um at the ends of words. It's a flexible abbreviation. On rare occasions, it occurs within words, but this is not common and it's usually a compound word.

There was a lot of debate on the question of EVA-y (9-like glyph in the VM). While it is true that such letter was definitely used for Latin abbreviation cum/con at the beginning, and us/um at the end, it is also true that in the non-Latin writing, that same glyph often stood for the letter i/y. I suppose when the Latin ending ending -us was dropped in the Italian language, they began to read the names of the saints with the ending -i, not -us. I have noticed such two way spelling in many 15th century calendar Housebooks and even in the bibles that contained the names of the saints. While it is possible that the full and abbreviated names of the saints were used on the same pages, in some manuscripts there is also a third option, where the names of the male saints end on y, or ij, which clearly stands for Y.
In the VM, there are also many free-standing 9-like Y letters. In Slovenian (and some other Slavic languages) medieval language, the letter Y stood for English 'and'. Another frequent use of y in Slovenian was for abbreviated word 'je' (he is), such as 'je počasen' - he is slow; je profesor - he is professor; je dal - he gave. There are many other explanations for the frequency of the initial and final Y in Slovenian language, however, it needs to be pointed out that the letter Y was later replaced with i or j. 
The shape of the letter would not be confused with the Latin q (which was of very similar shape), because even the author of the VM seldom used letter q.
This is just an idea to say that both Petersen and Rene were right.