Minim (palaeography)

Minim (palaeography)
Page from a 14th century Psalter, with blackletter "sine pedibus" text.

In palaeography, a minim is a short, vertical stroke used in handwriting. The word is derived from the Latin minimum, meaning "least" or "smallest".

A minim is the basic stroke for the letters i, m, n, and u in uncial script and later scripts deriving from it. Parts of other letters are based on minims as well: when a minim is extended above the line, it becomes an ascender, as in the letters d and b, and when it is extended below the line, it becomes a descender, as in the letters p and q. It is a stem when it forms only part of a letter, such as r.

Minims often have a connecting stroke which makes it clear that they form an m, n, etc.; however, in Gothic scripts, also known as textualis especially in late examples, minims do not connect to each other at all and it is nearly impossible to tell what letter is meant. A 14th century example of this is: mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt ("the smallest mimes of the gods of snow do not wish at all in their life that the great duty of the defences of the wine be diminished"). In Gothic script this would look like a series of single strokes (this problem eventually led to a dotted i and a separate letter j[citation needed]).

The problem was also sometimes solved in other ways in some languages. In Middle English, it has been suggested that the development of certain historically "wrong" spelling conventions (e.g. love for earlier luve, woman for earlier wimman) was motivated by the need to avoid long minim clusters.[1]

Gothic minims may have various decorations (essentially serifs), from a simple initial headstroke, to large diamond-shaped finials at the top and bottom, such as in textualis quadrata, the most decorated form of Gothic. Textualis sine pedibus, literally "textualis without feet", has minims with no finials at all, while textualis rotunda has round finials.

References

  1. ^ Heidi Harley (2006) English words: a linguistic introduction. Blackwell. ch.8. draft online chapter

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Minim — may refer to: Minim (music), a note length, another name for a half note (which usually gets two beats) MINIM (band), an industrial rock band from Spain Minim (unit), an amount of fluid Minim (religious order), a member of a religious order… …   Wikipedia

  • Миним (значения) — Миним (англ. Minim) устаревшая аптечная единица измерения в Британской Имперской и Американской системах мер для жидкостей. Миним (озеро) (фр. Lac des Minimes) озеро в Венсенском лесу. Миним  монах католического нищенствующего… …   Википедия

  • calligraphy — calligrapher, calligraphist, n. calligraphic /kal i graf ik/, calligraphical, adj. calligraphically, adv. /keuh lig reuh fee/, n. 1. fancy penmanship, esp. highly decorative handwriting, as with a great many flourishes: She appreciated the… …   Universalium

  • paleography — paleographer, n. paleographic /pay lee euh graf ik/ or, esp. Brit., /pal ee /, paleographical, adj. paleographically, adv. /pay lee og reuh fee/ or, esp. Brit., /pal ee /, n. 1. ancient forms of writing, as in documents and inscriptions. 2. the …   Universalium

  • Note value — Parts of a note In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence or absence of flags/beams/hooks/tails. A rest indicates a… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”