University of Ghent: Historical documents, digital approaches


Author: Tjamke Snijders (tjamke.snijders@ugent.be) Maintained by: David J. Birnbaum (djbpitt@gmail.com) [Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 Unported License] Last modified: 2013-09-03T14:14:50+0000


Latin transcription: abbreviation, punctuation, and more

General rules for latin transcription

Letter Unicode Explanation
ę u+0119 transcribe either as ę or as ae
i   transcribe either as i or as j
j   transcribe either as i or as j
u+a751 per
p + u+0305 pre or prae
p + u+a753 pro
ſ u+017f s
u   can be either u or v
̅ u+0305 means that one or more letters are missing. Quite often the letter m, especially at the end of a word: eadē = eadem; viā = viam; etiā = etiam; secū = secum; = eam, etc. However, the ̅ can indicate other missing letters as well, especially in the middle of a word.

General Latin abbreviations

Abbreviation Unicode Expansion
b;   bus
q q・ q; qꝫ   que
a + u+a75b (t)ur
& or 7   et
a+a770 us
u+a76b us
u+a75d orum
u+af6f con
o2   or
  ter

Punctuation

Symbol Unicode Modern equivalent
˙ u+02d9 .
u+30fb ;
.   ,
؛ u+016b :

Abbreviated words in the vitae

Abbreviation Expansion
aƀƀis abbatis
bn ̅ bene
cōlactanea collactanea [sic]
cōūsari conversari
con or com
comm̅dans commendans
cum
dedūnt dederunt
dī, dō dei , deo
ē est
epła epistola
epō episcopo
iam
ipā ipsa
liƀtate libertate
matⁱ matri
non
pꝰt post
ꝓp̅t propter
q quo
qd quod
reūti reverti
scā, scę̅, sci, scōrū/scōꝝ, scīssim sancta, sanctae, sancti, sanctorum, sanctissimo
ſcⁱptura scriptura
ſic̅ sicut
spūali spirituali
ſ; sed
ſuꝑvix̅ supervixit
ů vero
ūberum verberum
uniūſe universe
xpī christi