Text Encoding Initiative

Types of abbreviations

It is customary to divide abbreviations into four types:

1. Suspensions, where only the first letter or letters of the word are written, generally followed by a point.
2. Contractions, where the first and last letters are written, normally also with a superscript stroke, or, less commonly, a point or points.
3. Special signs or brevigraphs, such as the Tironian nota (⁊ or ), used for et in Latin and found in the vernacular languages in the same sense.
4. Superscript letters; a superscript vowel normally represents that vowel preceded by r or v, a superscript consonant that consonant preceded by a.

These different types of abbreviation may be distinguished from each other by means of the type attribute, either for statistical analysis or if they are to be treated in varying ways, as is sometimes the case with suspensions, the expansions of which are placed in round brackets:

k<expan type="cont">onung</expan>r su<expan type="susp">arar</expan>

This could then be made to display as follows:

konungr su(arar)