108. (6.) Occasionally, to achieve a phrase, a consonant stroke is substituted for a tick word-sign or a "brief w or y" word-sign or a circle word-sign, as where or is represented by the upward r in the phrase three or four. In many cases, however, the stroke thus substituted for the briefer sign is never used unmodified, but is merely made the basis for abbreviations or modifications which cannot be applied to the briefer ordinary sign. Thus, by assuming the stroke v represents of (though never so used in fact,) we obtain the useful phrases, of their

of all

and of all their

By treating

as if it represented were, though never used unmodified for that purpose, we obtain, by applying abbreviating principles, the useful phrases were it

were it not

were not

The substituted consonant stroke which, by a convenient fiction, is treated in these cases as if it were the accepted sign of the primitive word (though it is not such in fact and possibly is never written as such) may be called a "fictitious primitive."