Glyph. What a strange word. It sounds like a hipster version of the word hieroglyphic. Perhaps the most recognizable glyph today is the New Orleans Fleur De Lis. You can't see one without thinking of the other. Modern sports fans recognize it immediately as the symbol for the New Orleans Saints NFL football team. The symbol, however, has ancient roots going back to Egypt and Babylonia.
It is hard to pin down a decent definition of the word, "glyph." Some people define it as a typographical mark that has a specific meaning. For instance, if you leave the dot off of the lower case letter "i, " most languages still read it as the letter it is meant to be. In Turkey, however, the letter "i" without the dot means something different from the same letter with the dot. So, in the English language, "i" without the dot is not a glyph; in Turkish, it is a glyph.
Take the Japanese language. It is made up of groups of written symbols, called syllabaries, that within themselves don't mean anything until they are put together with other syllabaries. Diacritics qualify for the status of glyph because they differentiate characters from each other.
This brings us back to the role of the fleur de lis as an icon for New Orleans. Where did it come from? What did it mean to our ancestors way back when? When did it ever mean anything other than beer, football and the Super Bowl?
The glyph that we recognize today as the flower of life came about in the early 11th century as France came out of the Dark Ages. Clovis I, the first, and almost mythical, king of the Franks, who were the nation who would become France, is reckoned to have been given a fleur directly from Heaven. Philip I, the first king of what we now know as France, adopted the symbol as his insignia.
The United Kingdom liked it so much they tweaked it and adapted it for its own royal family. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, uses it today. His version looks like three fluffy white feathers sticking out of a crown.
The French explorer, Sieur de La Salle, came over to the United States in 1682, and claimed the Mississippi Valley on behalf of French royalty. To designate the event, he stuck a white flag with a golden fleur de lis at the mouth of the Mississippi. The glyph moves closer to the state of Louisiana and its iconic city on the Gulf of Mexico.
The glyph finally arrived in the city of New Orleans in the hands of French settlers who used it in their flag. The fleur was finally home. It has represented The Big Easy for centuries in jewelry, architecture, art and football helmets. There is no "official" fleur. Over the centuries, it has been seen in many different forms and colors.
It is hard to pin down a decent definition of the word, "glyph." Some people define it as a typographical mark that has a specific meaning. For instance, if you leave the dot off of the lower case letter "i, " most languages still read it as the letter it is meant to be. In Turkey, however, the letter "i" without the dot means something different from the same letter with the dot. So, in the English language, "i" without the dot is not a glyph; in Turkish, it is a glyph.
Take the Japanese language. It is made up of groups of written symbols, called syllabaries, that within themselves don't mean anything until they are put together with other syllabaries. Diacritics qualify for the status of glyph because they differentiate characters from each other.
This brings us back to the role of the fleur de lis as an icon for New Orleans. Where did it come from? What did it mean to our ancestors way back when? When did it ever mean anything other than beer, football and the Super Bowl?
The glyph that we recognize today as the flower of life came about in the early 11th century as France came out of the Dark Ages. Clovis I, the first, and almost mythical, king of the Franks, who were the nation who would become France, is reckoned to have been given a fleur directly from Heaven. Philip I, the first king of what we now know as France, adopted the symbol as his insignia.
The United Kingdom liked it so much they tweaked it and adapted it for its own royal family. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, uses it today. His version looks like three fluffy white feathers sticking out of a crown.
The French explorer, Sieur de La Salle, came over to the United States in 1682, and claimed the Mississippi Valley on behalf of French royalty. To designate the event, he stuck a white flag with a golden fleur de lis at the mouth of the Mississippi. The glyph moves closer to the state of Louisiana and its iconic city on the Gulf of Mexico.
The glyph finally arrived in the city of New Orleans in the hands of French settlers who used it in their flag. The fleur was finally home. It has represented The Big Easy for centuries in jewelry, architecture, art and football helmets. There is no "official" fleur. Over the centuries, it has been seen in many different forms and colors.
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