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The alphabet contains several letters that are special to English at this time. The th sound is represented by the runic characters edh and thorn. The letter w appears in the modern form of interlocked vs, but also as the runic character wen.
Ligatures are rare, but appear occasionally in the form of the æ dipthong, as in the word cwæth . This word is only spelled with the dipthong in two of the four manumissions. Have I perchance already mentioned inconsistencies of spelling?
The other ligature appears in only one of the four manumissions, in the form of the st ligature as found in late Caroline minuscule script, in the word cristes . This script is a bit of a mongrel beastie, but then script classifications were introduced retrospectively to order the minds of paleographers. The scribes of this document had never heard of Caroline minuscule, insular minuscule or protogothic.They were just writing in a way that seemed appropriate to their purpose.
Manumissions of Serfs, 12th century (Exeter. Chapter Library, No.3501). (From The New Palaeographical Society 1903)

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Medieval Writing
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