Syntactic feature or scribal convention?

Apr 18, 2012 by

In an earlier post, discussing the birch bark document 607/562 (see image on the left), I mentioned a peculiarity of word order in this brief crime report: the appositive phrase (=extra description) NOVGORODSKE SMЬRDE appears not...

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Kirkdale Sundial: when was it inscribed?

Jan 16, 2012 by

The Kirkdale sundial and its inscription in Old English of the Viking period was mentioned in an earlier posting in connection with the technique — widely employed in various ancient and medieval manuscripts and inscriptions...

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Give me some space!

Oct 5, 2010 by

In yesterday’s posting, I mentioned that medieval manuscripts and inscriptions often used a line over the top of an abbreviation or an acronym to mark them as such. This was illustrated with the Kirkdale sundial. Another...

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