Editing Uncial script (section)

==National styles==
Due to its extremely widespread use, in [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]], [[Africa]]n, [[Italy|Italian]], [[France|French]], [[Spain|Spanish]], and "insular" ( [[Ireland|Irish]] and [[England|English]]) centres, there were many slightly different styles in use:

*African (i.e. [[North Africa during the Classical Period|Roman North Africa]]n) uncial is more angular than other forms of uncial. In particular, the bow of the letter a is particularly sharp and pointed.
*Byzantine uncial has two unique features: "b-d uncial" uses forms of b and d, which are closer to half-uncial (see below), and was in use in the 4th and 5th centuries; "b-r" uncial, in use in the 5th and 6th centuries, has a form of b that is twice as large as the other letters, and an r with a bow resting on the baseline and the stem extending below the baseline.
*Italian uncial has round letters (c, e, o, etc) with flatter tops, an a with a sharp bow (as in African uncial), an almost horizontal rather than vertical stem in d, and forked finials (i.e., [[serif]]s in some letters such as f, l, t, and s).
*Insular uncial (not to be confused with the separate [[insular script]]) generally has definite word separation, and accent marks over stressed syllables, probably because Irish scribes did not speak a language descended from Latin. They also use specifically Insular [[scribal abbreviation]]s not found in other uncial forms, use wedge-shaped finials, connect a slightly subscript "pendant i" with m or h (when at the end of a word), and decorate the script with animals and dots ("Insular dotting", often in groups of three). 
*French (that is, [[Merovingian]]) uncial uses thin descenders (in g, p, etc), an x with lines that cross higher than the middle, and a d with a curled stem (somewhat resembling an apple), and there are many decorations of fish, trees, and birds.
*[[Cyrillic]] manuscript developed from Greek uncial in the late ninth century (mostly replacing the [[Glagolitic alphabet]]), and was originally used to write the [[Old Church Slavonic]] liturgical language. The earlier form was called ''ustav'' (predominant in the 11–14th centuries), and later developed into ''semi-ustav'' script (or ''poluustav'', 15–16th centuries).