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Scribal abbreviations, orsigla (singular:siglum), areabbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, includingLatin,Greek,Old English andOld Norse.
In modernmanuscript editing (substantive and mechanical)sigla are the symbols used to indicate the source manuscript (e.g. variations in text between different such manuscripts).
Abbreviated writing, using sigla, arose partly from the limitations of the workable nature of the materials (stone,metal,parchment, etc.) employed in record-making and partly from their availability. Thus,lapidaries,engravers, andcopyists made the most of the available writing space. Scribal abbreviations were infrequent when writing materials were plentiful, but by the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, writing materials were scarce and costly.
During theRoman Republic, several abbreviations, known as sigla (plural ofsiglum 'symbol or abbreviation'), were in common use in inscriptions, and they increased in number during theRoman Empire. Additionally, in this periodshorthand entered general usage. The earliest known Western shorthand system was that employed by the Greek historianXenophon in thememoir of Socrates, and it was callednotae socratae. In the late Roman Republic, theTironian notes were developed possibly byMarcus Tullius Tiro, Cicero'samanuensis, in 63 BC to record information with fewer symbols; Tironian notes include a shorthand/syllabic alphabet notation different from theLatin minuscule hand andsquare andrustic capital letters. The notation was akin to modernstenographic writing systems. It used symbols for whole words or word roots and grammatical modifier marks, and it could be used to write either whole passages in shorthand or only certain words. In medieval times, the symbols to represent words were widely used; and the initial symbols, as few as 140 according to some sources, were increased to 14,000 by theCarolingians, who used them in conjunction with other abbreviations. However, the alphabet notation had a "murky existence" (C. Burnett), as it was often associated with witchcraft and magic, and it was eventually forgotten. Interest in it was rekindled by theArchbishop of CanterburyThomas Becket in the 12th century and later in the 15th century, when it was rediscovered byJohannes Trithemius, abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Sponheim, in a psalm written entirely in Tironian shorthand and a Ciceronian lexicon, which was discovered in a Benedictine monastery (notae benenses).[1]
To learn the Tironian note system, scribes required formal schooling in some 4,000 symbols; this later increased to some 5,000 symbols and then to some 13,000 in the medieval period (4th to 15th centuries AD);[2] the meanings of some characters remain uncertain. Sigla were mostly used inlapidary inscriptions; in some places and historical periods (such as medieval Spain) scribal abbreviations were overused to the extent that some are indecipherable.
The abbreviations were not constant but changed from region to region. Scribal abbreviations increased in usage and reached their height in theCarolingian Renaissance (8th to 10th centuries). The most common abbreviations, callednotae communes, were used across most of Europe, but others appeared in certain regions. In legal documents, legal abbreviations, callednotae juris, appear but also capricious abbreviations, which scribes manufactured ad hoc to avoid repeating names and places in a given document.[3]
Scribal abbreviations can be found inepigraphy, sacred and legal manuscripts, written in Latin or in a vernacular tongue (but less frequently and with fewer abbreviations), either calligraphically or not.
Inepigraphy, common abbreviations were comprehended in two observed classes:
Both forms of abbreviation are calledsuspensions (as the scribe suspends the writing of the word). A separate form of abbreviation is bycontraction and was mostly a Christian usage for sacred words, orNomina Sacra; non-Christian sigla usage usually limited the number of letters the abbreviation comprised and omitted no intermediate letter. One practice was rendering an overused, formulaic phrase only as a siglum:DM forDis Manibus ('Dedicated to the Manes');IHS from the first three letters ofΙΗΣΟΥΣ; andRIP forrequiescat in pace ('rest in peace')) because the long-form written usage of the abbreviated phrase, by itself, was rare. According to Traube, these abbreviations are not really meant to lighten the burden of the scribe but rather to shroud in reverent obscurity the holiest words of the Christian religion.[4]
Another practice was repeating the abbreviation's final consonant a given number of times to indicate a group of as many persons:AVG denotedAugustus, thus,AVGG denotedAugusti duo; however, lapidaries took typographic liberties with that rule, and instead of usingCOSS to denoteConsulibus duobus, they invented theCCSS form. Still, when occasion required referring to three or four persons, the complex doubling of the final consonant yielded to the simple plural siglum. To that effect, avinculum (overbar) above a letter or a letter-set also was so used, becoming a universal medieval typographic usage. Likewise thetilde (~), an undulated, curved-end line, came into standard late-medieval usage. Besides the tilde andmacron marks above and below letters, modifying cross-bars and extended strokes were employed as scribal abbreviation marks, mostly for prefixes and verb, noun and adjective suffixes.
The typographic abbreviations should not be confused with the phrasal abbreviations:i.e. (id est 'that is');loc. cit. (loco citato 'in the passage already cited');viz. (vide licet 'namely; that is to say; in other words' – formed withvi + theyogh-like glyph ꝫ, the siglum for the suffix-et and the conjunctionet); andetc. (et cetera 'and so on').
Moreover, besides scribal abbreviations, ancient texts also contained variant typographic characters, includingligatures (Æ, Œ, etc.), thelong s (ſ), and ther rotunda (ꝛ). Theu andv characters originated as scribal variants for their respective letters, likewise thei andj pair. Modern publishers printing Latin-language works replace variant typography and sigla with full-form Latin spellings; the convention of usingu andi for vowels andv andj for consonants is a late typographic development.
Some ancient and medieval sigla are still used in English and other European languages; the Latinampersand (&) replaces the conjunctionand in English,et in Latin and French, andy in Spanish (but its use in Spanish is frowned upon, since they is already smaller and easier to write)[citation needed]. The Tironian sign (⁊), resembling the digit seven (7), represents the conjunctionet and is written only to thex-height; in currentIrish language usage, the siglum denotes the conjunctionagus ('and'). Other scribal abbreviations in modern typographic use are thepercentage sign (%), from the Italianper cento ('per hundred'); thepermille sign (‰); from the Italianper mille ('per thousand'); thepound sign (₤, £ and #, all descending from ℔ orlb forlibrum) and thedollar sign ($), which possibly derives from the Spanish wordpeso. Thecommercial at symbol (@), originally denoting 'at the rate/price of', is an abbreviation of the wordAmphora[5]—a kind of pot used as aunit of trade; from the 1990s, its use outside commerce became widespread, as part ofe-mail addresses.
Typographically, the ampersand, representing the wordet, is a space-savingligature of the letterse andt, its componentgraphemes. Since the establishment of movable-type printing in the 15th century, founders have created many such ligatures for each set of record type (font) to communicate much information with fewer symbols. Moreover, during theRenaissance (14th to 17th centuries), whenAncient Greek languagemanuscripts introduced that tongue toWestern Europe, its scribal abbreviations were converted to ligatures in imitation of the Latin scribal writing to which readers were accustomed. Later, in the 16th century, when the culture of publishing included Europe's vernacular languages, Graeco-Roman scribal abbreviations disappeared, an ideologic deletion ascribed to the anti-LatinistProtestant Reformation (1517–1648).
The common abbreviationXmas, forChristmas, is a remnant of an old scribal abbreviation that substituted theGreek letterchi (Χ) for Christ's name (deriving from the first letter in his name,Χριστος).
After the invention of printing, manuscript copying abbreviations continued to be employed inChurch Slavonic and are still in use in printed books as well as on icons and inscriptions. Many common long roots and nouns describing sacred persons are abbreviated and written under the specialdiacritic symboltitlo, as shown in the figure at the right. That corresponds to theNomina sacra ('Sacred names') tradition of using contractions for certain frequently occurring names inGreek ecclesiastical texts. However, sigla for personal nouns are restricted to "good" beings and the same words, when referring to "bad" beings, are spelled out. For example, whileGod in the sense of the one true God is abbreviated asБг҃ъ,god referring to false gods is spelled out. Likewise, the word meaning 'angel' is generally abbreviated asагг҃лъ, but the word meaning 'angels' is spelled out for 'performed by evil angels' in Psalm 77.[6]
Adriano Cappelli'sLexicon Abbreviaturarum lists the various medieval brachigraphic signs found inVulgar Latin and Italian texts, which originate from the Roman sigla, a symbol to express a word, and Tironian notes.[7] Quite rarely, abbreviations did not carry marks to indicate that an abbreviation has occurred: if they did, they were oftencopying errors. For example,e.g. is written with periods, but modern terms, such asPC, may be written in uppercase.
The original manuscripts were not written in a modern sans-serif or serif font but in Roman capitals, rustic, uncial, insular, Carolingian or blackletter styles. For more, refer toWestern calligraphy or a beginner's guide.[8]
Additionally, the abbreviations employed varied across Europe. In Nordic texts, for instance, tworunes were used in text written in the Latin alphabet, which arefé (ᚠ 'cattle, goods') andmaðr (ᛘ 'man').
Cappelli divides abbreviations into six overlapping categories:
Suspended terms are those of which only the first part is written, and the last part is substituted by a mark, which can be of two types:
The largest class of suspensions consists of single letters standing in for words that begin with that letter.
A dot at the baseline after a capital letter may stand for a title if it is used such as in front of names or a person's name in medieval legal documents. However, not all sigla use the beginning of the word.
For plural words, the siglum is often doubled:F. =frater andFF. =fratres. Tripled sigla often stand for three:DDD =domini tres.
Letters lying on their sides, or mirrored (backwards), often indicate female titles, but a mirroredC (Ↄ) stands generally forcon orcontra (the latter sometimes with a macron above: Ↄ̄).
To avoid confusion with abbreviations and numerals, the latter are often written with anoverline above. In some contexts, however, numbers with a line above indicate that number is to be multiplied by a thousand, and several other abbreviations also have a line above them, such asΧΡ (Greek letters chi + rho) =Christus orIHS =Jesus.
Starting in the 8th or the 9th century, single-letter sigla grew less common and were replaced by longer, less ambiguous sigla with bars above them.
Abbreviations by contraction have one or more middle letters omitted. They were often represented with a general mark of abbreviation (above), such as a line above. They can be divided into two subtypes:
Such marks inform the reader of the identity of the missing part of the word without affecting (independent of) the meaning. Some of them may be interpreted as alternative contextual glyphs of their respective letters.
The meaning of the marks depends on the letter on which they appear.
A superscript letter generally referred to the letter omitted, but, in some instances, as in the case of vowel letters, it could refer to a missing vowel combined with the letterr, before or after it. It is only in some English dialects that the letterr before another consonant largely silent and the preceding vowel is "r-coloured".
However,a,i, ando aboveg meantgͣgna,gͥgni andgͦgno respectively. Although in English, theg is silent ingn, but in other languages, it is pronounced. Vowel letters aboveq meantqu + vowel:qͣ,qͤ,qͥ,qͦ,qͧ.
Vowels were the most common superscripts, but consonants could be placed above letters without ascenders; the most common werec, e.g.nͨ. A cutl above ann,nᷝ, meantnihil for instance.
For numerals, double-x superscripts are sometimes used to express scores, i. e. multiplication by twenty. For example, IIIIxx indicates 80, VIxxXI indicates 131.
These marks are nonalphabetic letters carrying a particular meaning. Several of them continue in modern usage, as in the case of monetary symbols. In Unicode, they are referred to asletter-like glyphs. Additionally, several authors are of the view that the Roman numerals themselves were, for example, nothing less than abbreviations of the words for those numbers. Other examples of symbols still in some use arealchemical andzodiac symbols, which were, in any case, employed only in alchemy and astrology texts, which made their appearance beyond that special context rare.
Some important examples are two stacked horizontal lines (looks like =) foresse ('to be'), and anobelus consisting of a horizontal line and two dots (looks like ÷) forest ('it is').
In addition to the signs used to signify abbreviations, medieval manuscripts feature some glyphs that are now uncommon but were not sigla. Many moreligatures were used to reduce the space occupied, a characteristic that is particularly prominent in blackletter scripts. Someletter variants such asr rotunda,long s and uncial or insular variants (Insular G),Claudian letters were in common use, as well as letters derived from other scripts such as Nordic runes:thorn (þ) andeth (ð), each representing the English "th" sounds. Anilluminated manuscript would featureminiatures,decorated initials orlittera notabilior, which later resulted in thebicamerality of the script (case distinction).
Varioustypefaces have been designed to allow scribal abbreviations and other archaic glyphs to be replicated in print. They include "record type", which was first developed in the 1770s topublish Domesday Book and was fairly widely used for the publication of medieval records in Britain until the end of the 19th century.
In theUnicode Standardv. 5.1 (4 April 2008), 152 medieval and classical glyphs were given specific locations outside of the Private Use Area. Specifically, they are located in the charts"Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement" (26 characters),"Latin Extended Additional" (10 characters),"Supplemental Punctuation" (15 characters),"Ancient Symbols" (12 characters) and especially"Latin Extended-D" (89 characters).[10]These consist in both precomposed characters and modifiers for other characters, called combining diacritical marks (such as writing inLaTeX or usingoverstrike in MS Word).
Characters are "the smallest components of written language that have semantic value" but glyphs are "the shapes that characters can have when they are rendered or displayed".[11]
| Symbols | Code points[13] |
|---|---|
| Ꜿ ꜿ | U+A73E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER REVERSED C WITH DOT U+A73F LATIN SMALL LETTER REVERSED C WITH DOT |
| Ꝯ ꝯ ꝰ | U+A76E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER CON U+A76F LATIN SMALL LETTER CON U+A770 MODIFIER LETTER US |
| ꝱ | U+A771 LATIN SMALL LETTER DUM |
| Ꝫ ꝫ | U+A76A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER ET U+A76B LATIN SMALL LETTER ET |
| Ꝭ ꝭ | U+A76C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER IS U+A76D LATIN SMALL LETTER IS |
| Ꝃ ꝃ | U+A742 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K WITH DIAGONAL STROKE U+A743 LATIN SMALL LETTER K WITH DIAGONAL STROKE |
| Ꝁ ꝁ | U+A740 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K WITH STROKE U+A741 LATIN SMALL LETTER K WITH STROKE |
| Ꝅ ꝅ | U+A744 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER K WITH STROKE AND DIAGONAL STROKE U+A745 LATIN SMALL LETTER K WITH STROKE AND DIAGONAL STROKE |
| Ꝉ ꝉ | U+A748 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH HIGH STROKE U+A749 LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH HIGH STROKE |
| ꝲ | U+A772 LATIN SMALL LETTER LUM |
| ꝳ | U+A773 LATIN SMALL LETTER MUM |
| ꝴ | U+A774 LATIN SMALL LETTER NUM |
| Ꝋ ꝋ | U+A74A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH LONG STROKE OVERLAY U+A74B LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH LONG STROKE OVERLAY |
| Ꝓ ꝓ | U+A752 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P WITH FLOURISH U+A753 LATIN SMALL LETTER P WITH FLOURISH |
| Ꝕ ꝕ | U+A754 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P WITH SQUIRREL TAIL U+A755 LATIN SMALL LETTER P WITH SQUIRREL TAIL |
| Ꝑ ꝑ | U+A750 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER P WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER U+A751 LATIN SMALL LETTER P WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER |
| Ꝙ ꝙ | U+A758 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q WITH DIAGONAL STROKE U+A759 LATIN SMALL LETTER Q WITH DIAGONAL STROKE |
| Ꝗ ꝗ | U+A756 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER U+A757 LATIN SMALL LETTER Q WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER |
| ꝵ | U+A775 LATIN SMALL LETTER RUM |
| ꝶ | U+A776 LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL RUM |
| Ꝝ ꝝ | U+A75C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER RUM ROTUNDA U+A75D LATIN SMALL LETTER RUM ROTUNDA |
| ẜ | U+1E9C LATIN SMALL LETTER LONG S WITH DIAGONAL STROKE |
| ẝ | U+1E9D LATIN SMALL LETTER LONG S WITH HIGH STROKE |
| ꝷ | U+A777 LATIN SMALL LETTER TUM |
| ꝸ | U+A778 LATIN SMALL LETTER UM |
| Ꝟ ꝟ | U+A75E LATIN CAPITAL LETTER V WITH DIAGONAL STROKE U+A75F LATIN SMALL LETTER V WITH DIAGONAL STROKE |
| Ꝥ ꝥ | U+A764 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER THORN WITH STROKE U+A765 LATIN SMALL LETTER THORN WITH STROKE |
| Ꝧ ꝧ | U+A766 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER THORN WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER U+A767 LATIN SMALL LETTER THORN WITH STROKE THROUGH DESCENDER |
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Methods of Abbreviation".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
