The Letter 'd'

[Khandro]

It occurs to me that the letter d is the only letter in our alphabet that in its lower case form has the loop to the left of the vertical and in its capital the loop is to the right, as d and D, is there an historic explanation for this please?

[ferlew]

Doesn't Q also?

[Prudie]

G g does as well and as P is the only other letter that has a loop and vertical it doesn't strike me as anything unusual

[Khandro]

q Q . not really

[Prudie]

sorry and B I suppose

[Khandro]

I'm thinking more in terms of written or calligraphic lettering where G doesn't alter nor does q

[Khandro]

b B No

[Buenchico]

>>>is there an historic explanation for this please?

Simply that our alphabet is derived from the Ancient Greek alphabet:
http://maswaone.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/greekalphabet2col.jpg

[Khandro]

Thanks, but if capital D is a triangle in ancient Greek, the 'loop' or projection could be to the left just as easily as to the right to keep them both consistent.

[Zacs-Master]

Khandro, have you been over doing it lately old chap?

[Khandro]

Where's 'murraymints', she is a professional scribe and would understand.

[atalanta]

Until the time of the invention of printing, the way letters were formed changed with fashion. When the printing press came in, the script of the time was Humanist, a style which went back to the old Caroline style as people had got tired of the almost illegible spiky gothic. Small letters ( miniscules) were derived from Humanist, and capitals were derived from Roman carved stone inscriptions. When pages of type were broken up into separate letters to wait to be reset as new pages, small letters of print were kept in the lower box, and capitals were kept in the upper box.hence lower case and upper case.

[jno]

it looks from this chart as though the Etruscans had it the other way round but the Romans somehow flipped it.

http://api.ning.com/files/5rfqC-p*pgdJv5bYDXA4pk1yUqJndFXikWBqis6fFVFZuSb6AWALtOBqpffNAZKEZ9bw3EujeVPoypXDFJbR7XbLerpd184k/EvolutionoftheAlphabet.gif

[Khandro]

Having slept on it, I think I may have answered my own question; if the loop on the capital if d (D) was on the same side i.e. left it would resemble a lower case a (though not in this font, but in calligraphy).
Zacs-Master may be correct (see above), its just that I have been looking at a lot of different calligraphic alphabets of late.