Transcription Conventions

The Whitney Research Group website uses the following transcription conventions:

Transcription Conventions

• Non-standard spellings are left as they are in the document.
• Abbreviations are expanded, except where the abbreviation is common knowledge, such as Mr. for Mister.
• When abbreviations are expanded, the missing letters are italicized .
• Crossed out words are designated like this.
• [ ] is used to designate any conjectural reconstructions of the text supplied by the transcriber
• & is retained as is, even in various versions

Example - Tironian 'et':

• Where letters or words have not yet been transcribed, they are replaced by approximately the same number of underscores as there are letters missing.

Common Abbreviations

• The letter "p" with a horizontal line through the descender is an abbreviation for "per-", "par-", or "pro-"

Example - ""prosecute":

• A long sweeping "e" at the end of a word is an abbreviation for "-es" or "-ies"

Example - "forty powndes":

• A horizontal line over a word designates missing letters.
• A downward and backwards stroke through a long s stands for "ir", "er", or "ur", and this abbreviation alone means "Sir"

Example - "Sir David parson":

• Other abbreviations can be found in the book "Latin Palaeography - Antiquity & the Middle Ages"
• See also
  • Paleography: Scribal Abbreviations
  • Contractions and Suspensions
  • English Handwriting 1500-1700, An Online Course, Transcription Conventions

Note: Many of these conventions come from the book "English Handwriting 1400-1650"