Abbreviation

Ancient abbreviations

August 1st

Medieval abbreviations

The being expensive Parchment, the abbreviations abound in the Western Manuscrit S, especially after the Early middle ages. They are the continuation, and the result, of the ancient abbreviations. The medieval abbreviations can be several natures:

contraction: one or more letters of a word are omitted but the first and the last are preserved. A Titulus (feature superscribes more or less horizontal and right, ancestor of the Tilde) can announce this fact; the contractions are, by far, more frequent with the Middle Ages than during the Antiquity, which preferred the suspension. They very often meet for the nominated crowned (“crowned names”).

Examples: ihs xps → Iesus Christos (“Jesus-Christ”); to note that one frequently finds a mixture of Latin letters and Greek in the nominated crowned : H , X and p is adaptations of the letters Onciale S (η, E ), (χ, kʰ ) and (ρ, R ); omps → omnipotens (“very powerful”), etc One seldom uses the pure French contraction because one prefers either the contraction by superscribed letter to him, or the suspension (see low);

superscribed letter: the word is truncated by contraction (one keeps only the first letters) and the final (or finales) is written in height, in a small size.

This method was particularly well preserved in our uses. That one thinks of modern abbreviations like 1st , vº (and not v° ; to see back ), D ( Doctor ), Mrs. , French etc, the abbreviatory point cannot follow the contractions;

suspension: the final (one or more letters) of a word (or a syllable) is omitted. Often, an abbreviatory point follows the element (word or syllable) shortened, two points surround it, or the titulus surmounts it, among many other signs (of which the Deux-points or the Point-virgule); the suspension of N and m final (then at the end of the syllable) very frequent and is indicated by the titulus (which, in this function, gives the tilde; it is sometimes surmounted by a point for m suspended). By extension, one names suspension any abbreviation in which the last letter of the word is absent;

Examples: a.d. → ass Domini , .n. → enim (“indeed”), ē → is (“/it is”), deb.; → debit balance (“/it must”), etc → and will cetera , dominū → dominum (“Lord” Accusatif), etc This method of abbreviation is still very long-lived in French ( cf , etc , Mr. );

Logogramme various S and symbols: words or whole syllables can be replaced by a single sign, that they are binding S (cf Esperluette ) or letters modified (barred, surmounted symbols, titulus and other signs). The Notes tironiennes provided a great number of abbreviations of this type, which abound especially in the manuscripts of right.

The paleographer is often confronted with a plethora of abbreviations, made complex by the fact that they are not standardized before the 12th century (they form then a coherent system) and that they abound between and it.

The dictionary of A. Capelli “ Dizionario di abbreviature latini ED italiani ”, Milan, 1912, counts very many Latin medieval abbreviations. You can consult it on the sites of the universities of:

Moscow - Faculty of history
Köln - Verteilte Digital Inkunabelbibliothek

Some of the most significant abbreviations for the history of the orthography are described below.

X (- custom)

In the Handwritten S medieval in Former French, one often finds the letter X used like signs abbreviation for the continuation of letters - custom after vowel and at the end of the words, then very frequent. For example, which is written chevax must be read chevaus /ʧəvaus/, which evolved/moved then in/ʃəvo/(by Monophongaison of and Simplification of the affricate consonant/ʧ/). This practice was then lost but certain frequent words which were written with the Cas plural mode with this X (resulting from several origins, whose most current Vocalisation of a /l/ in front of consonant followed by the Désinence - S is the ) preserved it whereas their C-W communication was adapted to the current uses.

The word horse was declined, as former French, as follows:

singular:

prone case: horse-S → chevau-s (vocalization of /l/) written chevax ;
objective case: horse ;

plural:

prone case: horse ;
objective case: horse-S → chevau-s written chevax .

As the Form S to be itself preserved are those of the objective case, most frequent, there is currently the following couple: (one) horse ~ (of) chevaus . One writes this plural however (as in many names in - Al of the same origin), - to the by analogical repair : X being included/understood more like a short cut for - custom , being an often dumb consonant in addition at the end of the words ( cross , voice ), one added a U after the has to make correspond the pronunciation with the usual Digramme to the . In fact, the orthography horses is redundant since it returns to chevauus . A useful reform, would be finally to write chevaus . (also applicable to all the French words in ux )

The use of - X for - custom in the French manuscripts is so current that the edition S philological criticisms and modern generally reproduce it. The influence of this C-W communication in the French Orthographe explains also the maintenance of this use.

The term - custom was sometimes shortened by a 9 placed while exposing at the end of the word, for example (pl' us' ).

The use of the tilde, the barred letters and the cedilla

The monks copyists then the first printers used the Tilde, primarily on the vowels, to shorten certain groups of letters. As follows:

has Tilde = “year” (b' an' quets);
E tilde = “in” or “EM” (anci' en' );
I tilde = “in” ( in eptem' en' T);
O tilde = “one” or “om” (h' om' my);
U tilde = “one” or “one” (auc' un' );
N tilde = “neu” (seig' neu' R);
p tilde = “pre” ( pre miere);
Q tilde = “that” (des' que' ls);
R tilde = “tr” (L (E) tr be).

Certain barred letters were also used as abbreviations:

p barred = “by” or “per” ( by escript);
Q barred = “which” ( which ).

To note the rare ones finally:

p Cedilla = “pro” ( pro fitables).
E Ogonek (or reversed cedilla) = “æ” (gr' æ c).

These abbreviations, very current until the middle of the 16th century, disappeared gradually. The tildées vowels however perduré until the end of the 17th century.
The example of text in label was carried out with the Font face 1550.ttf, freely downloadable, the illustrations of the characters come from Numérisation S of works (BnF/Gallica source).

Abbreviatory symbols preserved in the modern writings

Among the many symbols resulting from bindings or signs diacrity S which one used in the manuscripts, some were maintained in the modern writings. Most important, being now integrated in almost all the Language S and their writing S are the Point exclamation (" ! " , abbreviation of interjectio ) and the Question mark (" ? " , abbreviation of questio ). One can also count for this reason the Esperluette (" & " , binding of and ) as well as the Brace (" # " , abbreviation of numerus , “number”, are NR overcome by a Titulus ).

Typology of the abbreviatory systems

Abbreviation: Shortening of the word or the words and, possibly removal of vowels: Example: my. for message . Miss for Miss
Acronym: Abbreviation whose result forms a word pronounced without spelling it. Example AIDS or CIF
Siglaison: consist in taking the initial ones of several and the acoler together. Example Gaz de France - > GDF or G.D.F. (according to editorial charter of the support)
Initial: process are equivalent to the siglaison but limited to the proper names: Examples: PPDA for Patrick Poivre d' Arvor , JJSS for Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber or DSK for Dominique Strauss Kahn , JFK for John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Jean-François Kahn .
Truncation: word truncated in beginning or end and, possibly, finished by the vowel O. It is the most current form for the construction of diminutive. Example: proletarian prole for , pitaine for captain or Canto for Eric Confined
Mot bag: Meeting of a syllable or a letter beginning a word with the end from another mot. Example: Aldol for aldehyde + alcohol or Bollywood for Bombay + Hollywood
Reserve of feather: Consist in masking the letters of a word, in general ordurier, by a punctuation mark which is often the point: Example M…. for Merde
Mot forms: The form characteristic of the object which the word described is integrated into the word and avoids the use of a syllable (especially in English): Example: Tee-shirt with for Tee-shirt (shirt in form of T) or V-neck for the collar out of V
Phonetic: Very used of mobile telephony ( SMS) it consists in replacing syllables or words by signs having same sonority: Example C for it is , 2 for of or A+ for with later

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