Show:Tionscadal na Nod/Glossary

abbreviation

A shortened representation of a word or phrase, that may include symbols as well as alphabetic characters.

allograph

A distinct form of an alphabetic letter or symbol in writing. In Irish manuscripts, it is common to see more than one allograph of a letter on the same page.

ascender and descender

An ascender is part of an alphabetic character that rises above the main body of some letters, such as the vertical line that extends above the circular part of the letter b.

A descender is part of an alphabetic character that drops below the baseline of most of the other characters in a line of writing. An example is the long downward line of r and s in Irish script.

ascent and descent

The ascent is the area between the x height (or cue height) and the highest part of a character in a line of writing.

The descent is the area between the baseline and the lowest part of a character in a line of writing.

baseline

A long imaginary horizontal line, on which the majority of the miniscules rest. For example, in Irish writing, some of the letters that usually rest on this line include d, i, m, n and u.

compendium

See #abbreviation

contraction

See #abbreviation

cue height

See x height

descender

See Ascender and descender

grapheme

A basic unit in the writing system of a (written) language. Like ‘character’, a ‘grapheme’ is an abstract term, but unlike ‘character’, it relates to the representation of phonemes. For instance, aoi represents one grapheme in modern Irish, but is composed of three different characters. Similarly, a character may be used for more than one grapheme.

letter

conceptually distinct from characters, graphemes and glyphs. A, a, _a and ^a represent four different characters of the same letter.

majuscule

See #minuscule and majuscule

minuscule and majuscule

• A minuscule is a small alphabetic character; the majority of the text of a manuscript is made up of minuscule letters.
• A majuscule is a large alphabetic character, often used at the beginning of a sentence in Irish manuscripts.

nomina sacra

Latin for ‘sacred names’.

subscript

See superscript and subscript

Tironian notes

A system of shorthand writing symbols attributed to Cicero's secretary Marcus Tullius Tiro, who lived in Rome in the 1st century BCE.

x height

Malcolm B. Parkes and Peter A. Stokes use the term ‘cue-height’ as the palaeographical equivalent.