Greek ligatures are graphic combinations of the letters of the Greek alphabet that were used in medieval handwritten Greek and in early printing. Ligatures were used in the cursive writing style and very extensively in later minuscule writing. There were dozens[1][2] of conventional ligatures. Some of them stood for frequent letter combinations, some for inflectional endings of words, and some were abbreviations of entire words.
Early Greek print, from a 1566 edition of Aristotle. The sample shows the -os ligature in the middle of the second line (in the word μέθοδος), the kai ligature below it in the third line, and the -ou- ligature right below that in the fourth line, along many others.
18th-century typeface sample by William Caslon, showing a greatly reduced set of ligatures (-ου- in "τοῦ", end of first line; -στ- in πλείστοις, middle of second line; and the καὶ abbreviation).
In early printed Greek from around 1500, many ligatures fashioned after contemporary manuscript hands continued to be used. Important models for this early typesetting practice were the designs of Aldus Manutius in Venice, and those of Claude Garamond in Paris, who created the influential Grecs du roi typeface in 1541. However, the use of ligatures gradually declined during the 17th and 18th centuries and became mostly obsolete in modern typesetting. Among the ligatures that remained in use the longest are the ligature Ȣ for ου, which resembles an o with an u on top, and the abbreviation ϗ for καὶ ('and'), which resembles a κ with a downward stroke on the right. The ου ligature is still occasionally used in decorative writing, while the καὶ abbreviation has some limited usage in functions similar to the Latin ampersand (&). Another ligature that was relatively frequent in early modern printing is a ligature of Ο with ς (a small sigma inside an omicron) for a terminal ος.
The ligature ϛ for στ, now called stigma, survived in a special role besides its use as a ligature proper. It took on the function of a number sign for "6", having been visually conflated with the cursive form of the ancient letter digamma, which had this numeral function.
Computer encoding
In the modern computer encoding standard Unicode, the abbreviation ϗ has been encoded since version 3.0 of the standard (1999). An uppercase version Ϗ was added in version 5.1 (2008). A lower and upper case "stigma", designed for its numeric use, is also encoded in Unicode. Letters derived from the ου ligature exist for use in Latin, and for Cyrillic, though not for Greek itself. Some attempts have been made at recreating typesetting with ligatures in modern computer fonts, either through Unicode-compliant OpenType glyph replacement,[3] or with simpler but non-standardized methods of glyph-by-glyph encoding.[4]
^Carl Faulmann, Das Buch der Schrift: Schriftzeichen und Alphabete aller Zeiten und Völker, Vienna 1880, p.172-176.
^e.g. Greek Font Society. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-07. Retrieved 2012-07-13.; George Douros. "Unicode fonts for ancient scripts". Retrieved 2012-07-13.
^ abcdefghThe Ligatures of Early Printed Greek by William H. Ingram Duke University LIbraries Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies
External links
Media related to Greek ligatures at Wikimedia Commons
January 13, 2023
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Main article History of the Greek alphabet Greek ligatures are graphic combinations of the letters of the Greek alphabet that were used in medieval handwritten Greek and in early printing Ligatures were used in the cursive writing style and very extensively in later minuscule writing There were dozens 1 2 of conventional ligatures Some of them stood for frequent letter combinations some for inflectional endings of words and some were abbreviations of entire words Early Greek print from a 1566 edition of Aristotle The sample shows the os ligature in the middle of the second line in the word me8odos the kai ligature below it in the third line and the ou ligature right below that in the fourth line along many others 18th century typeface sample by William Caslon showing a greatly reduced set of ligatures oy in toῦ end of first line st in pleistois middle of second line and the kaὶ abbreviation Contents 1 History 2 Computer encoding 3 Example images 3 1 Other examples 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksHistory EditIn early printed Greek from around 1500 many ligatures fashioned after contemporary manuscript hands continued to be used Important models for this early typesetting practice were the designs of Aldus Manutius in Venice and those of Claude Garamond in Paris who created the influential Grecs du roi typeface in 1541 However the use of ligatures gradually declined during the 17th and 18th centuries and became mostly obsolete in modern typesetting Among the ligatures that remained in use the longest are the ligature Ȣ for oy which resembles an o with an u on top and the abbreviation ϗ for kaὶ and which resembles a k with a downward stroke on the right The oy ligature is still occasionally used in decorative writing while the kaὶ abbreviation has some limited usage in functions similar to the Latin ampersand amp Another ligature that was relatively frequent in early modern printing is a ligature of O with s a small sigma inside an omicron for a terminal os The ligature ϛ for st now called stigma survived in a special role besides its use as a ligature proper It took on the function of a number sign for 6 having been visually conflated with the cursive form of the ancient letter digamma which had this numeral function Computer encoding EditIn the modern computer encoding standard Unicode the abbreviation ϗ has been encoded since version 3 0 of the standard 1999 An uppercase version Ϗ was added in version 5 1 2008 A lower and upper case stigma designed for its numeric use is also encoded in Unicode Letters derived from the oy ligature exist for use in Latin and for Cyrillic though not for Greek itself Some attempts have been made at recreating typesetting with ligatures in modern computer fonts either through Unicode compliant OpenType glyph replacement 3 or with simpler but non standardized methods of glyph by glyph encoding 4 Greek digraphs Character information Preview Ϗ ϗ Ϛ ϛUnicode name GREEK CAPITAL KAI SYMBOL GREEK KAI SYMBOL GREEK LETTER STIGMA GREEK SMALL LETTER STIGMAEncodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hexUnicode 975 U 03CF 983 U 03D7 986 U 03DA 987 U 03DBUTF 8 207 143 CF 8F 207 151 CF 97 207 154 CF 9A 207 155 CF 9BNumeric character reference amp 975 wbr amp x3CF wbr amp 983 wbr amp x3D7 wbr amp 986 wbr amp x3DA wbr amp 987 wbr amp x3DB wbr Latin and Cyrillic Ou digraphs Character information Preview Ȣ ȣ Ꙋ ꙋUnicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER OU LATIN SMALL LETTER OU CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER MONOGRAPH UK CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER MONOGRAPH UKEncodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hexUnicode 546 U 0222 547 U 0223 42570 U A64A 42571 U A64BUTF 8 200 162 C8 A2 200 163 C8 A3 234 153 138 EA 99 8A 234 153 139 EA 99 8BNumeric character reference amp 546 wbr amp x222 wbr amp 547 wbr amp x223 wbr amp 42570 wbr amp xA64A wbr amp 42571 wbr amp xA64B wbr Example images Edit eῖ ei 5 ger ger 5 kaὶ kai 5 mw mō 5 os os 5 oὖn oun 5 fhsὶ phesi 5 est est 5 Other examples Edit See also Editiota adscript which is written with a ligatured iota ᾼ iota subscript also written with a ligatured iota ᾳ Tau Rho Chi Rho Orthographic ligatureReferences Edit The Philokalia Package Archived 2012 05 25 at the Wayback Machine for LaTeX Carl Faulmann Das Buch der Schrift Schriftzeichen und Alphabete aller Zeiten und Volker Vienna 1880 p 172 176 e g Greek Font Society GFS Gazis PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2012 09 07 Retrieved 2012 07 13 George Douros Unicode fonts for ancient scripts Retrieved 2012 07 13 e g Schmidthauser Andreas Renaissance Greek Retrieved 2012 07 13 a b c d e f g h The Ligatures of Early Printed Greek by William H Ingram Duke University LIbraries Greek Roman and Byzantine StudiesExternal links Edit Media related to Greek ligatures at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Greek ligatures amp oldid 1109981112, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
