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| The Paleography | Paleography is the study of old writings: not only the art to decipher the texts, but also to date them, to locate them, to criticize the authenticity of it.
To decipher writings means to deal with many obstacles which make them not very readable: the state of conservation of the manuscript, the system of abbreviations, negligence of the scribe.
The scribe has until the 18th century, in addition to the initials, three usual means to shorten the words: abbreviations, contractions, distinguishing marks,the tirancians notes at the same time as the abbreviator system inherited in the Middle Ages, the writers continue to use an antiquated orthography. (Addition of letters, modification of the same letter).
The evolution of the writing is such that between the 17th and the 18th century we already had difficulties to transcribe a text.
[sources: Jacques Stiennon, Paléographie du Moyen Âge, Paris, 1999.
Gabrielle Audisio et Isabelle Bonnot, Rambaud, Lire le français d'hier. Manuel de paléographie moderne, XVe-XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1991.] |
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| What you should know: | The alphabet
Historically, the three most ancient writings (3000 before Jesus-Christ) are: in the Middle East, the cuneiform writing in Egypt, hieroglyphs, in the Far East, ideograms.
The invention of the alphabet is attributed to the Phoenicians during the second half of 2000 before Jesus-Christ.
The principal alphabets are:
Greek alphabet,
Latin,
Arab (the first inscription attested in Arabic is gone back to 512 after Jesus-Christ),
Cyrillic (Greek bishop) : Cyrille would have invented his alphabet in 862 to translate the Bible for the Slavic people.
The first coding of the alphabet by gestures goes back to 1620. It is due J.R Bonnet, tutor of deaf persons at the court of Spain.
The great innovation of the alphabet by gestures was done the abbot Charles Michel de l'Epée (1712-1789) who teached between 1756 and 1829.
Louis Braille (1809-1852) professor at the institute for blind invented the Braille alphabet for his pupils. |
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[Image"l'Abbé de l'Epée et le langage des Sourds-muets"-Private collection Jacques Clémens] |
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