ROMAN UNCIAL: ABBREVIATIONS

9. Why are there lines over the top of letters in lines 1, 4 and 6?

These are abbreviation marks.
These particular ones stand for common terms, especially nomina sacra, ‘sacred names’: the names
of Christ, God, and the Lord.
xps XPS stands for Christus.
As a sacred name it is treated with reverence and made the occasion for calligraphic
display in works like the Lindisfarne Gospels.
The X is a representation of the Greek chi, transliterated in Latin as ch,
the P of the Greek rho transliterated in Latin as r.
DS stands for Deus meaning ‘God’.
The last letter in the abbreviation shows the Latin case ending:
so DS stands for deus, ‘God’ in the nominative (subject) case, and DM for deum, ‘God’ in the accusative.
The other common ‘sacred name’ abbreviation is DNS for dominus, ‘Lord’.
Other forms of abbreviation are contractions:
here FF stands for fratres, ‘brothers’.
and suspensions.
A straight line over the top of a letter usually indicates omission of an n or m:
here NO with a line over the top stands for non, ‘not’.
The q followed by a mid-line dot here stands for que, the Latin for ‘and’
when attached to the end of a word.


How would you now transcribe these lines, expanding the abbreviations?

’Line

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’Line

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’Line

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’Line

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