This is a pretty typical example of abbreviated text from the 15th century.*
The first apostrophe is quite conventional (standing in for "ri"). The last one (the number 9) is a very common abbreviation for "-us" or "-um" and is the same symbol that is used as a VMS glyph.
The second apostrophe is somewhat unconventional and yet is completely understandable within this context, and illustrates the unpredictability of abbreviations, especially those in the middle of the text. As long as the context made the meaning of the abbreviation clear, scribes were at liberty to improvise and many did, sometimes using several abbreviations for the same word. Note that the apostrophe symbol (which is sometimes a line, sometimes a squiggle, sometimes a tail (an attached line), and sometimes an arc) is not always over the place where the letters have been omitted.
[*In case you're not familiar with Gothic cursive text, the word is Capricornus.]
There is a certain repetitious consistency to the VMS text that is dissimilar to manuscripts where abbreviations are used in flexible ways. There is also much less variability in VMS vord structure compared to natural language or even abbreviated natural language.
But... I've noticed that many of the researchers attempting to expand the text into Latin (and other languages) have assumed that some of the glyphs might stand for a variety of prefixes and suffixes (I made the same assumption when I was trying to make some sense of the text). The one that is most often expanded in different ways is the "y" (or "dy") that occurs with great frequency at the ends of words, probably because that is how the "9" glylph is handled in Latin and other languages using the Latin abbreviations (some of which were inherited from Greek conventions).
The "9" is not the only abbreviation glyph-shape used in the VMS. Many of these abbreviations were originally based on numbers, in pre-Carolingian and Carolingian days. The number 2 was also frequently used, most often representing "-ur" or "-tur". Sometimes the shape is tipped and resembles an r or c with a tail. A c with a tail can also be used for "cum" in Latin and "con" in Spanish.
One thing I'm certain of is that the VMS scribe was familiar with the glyphs used for Latin abbreviations. There are numerous examples and even a couple of places in which the 9 is superscripted. Here's an example from f33v, in which an apostrophe has been inserted to create dy'dy. Was this done to create a less common vord, or was the apostrophe added out of habit?
The first apostrophe is quite conventional (standing in for "ri"). The last one (the number 9) is a very common abbreviation for "-us" or "-um" and is the same symbol that is used as a VMS glyph.
The second apostrophe is somewhat unconventional and yet is completely understandable within this context, and illustrates the unpredictability of abbreviations, especially those in the middle of the text. As long as the context made the meaning of the abbreviation clear, scribes were at liberty to improvise and many did, sometimes using several abbreviations for the same word. Note that the apostrophe symbol (which is sometimes a line, sometimes a squiggle, sometimes a tail (an attached line), and sometimes an arc) is not always over the place where the letters have been omitted.
[*In case you're not familiar with Gothic cursive text, the word is Capricornus.]
There is a certain repetitious consistency to the VMS text that is dissimilar to manuscripts where abbreviations are used in flexible ways. There is also much less variability in VMS vord structure compared to natural language or even abbreviated natural language.
But... I've noticed that many of the researchers attempting to expand the text into Latin (and other languages) have assumed that some of the glyphs might stand for a variety of prefixes and suffixes (I made the same assumption when I was trying to make some sense of the text). The one that is most often expanded in different ways is the "y" (or "dy") that occurs with great frequency at the ends of words, probably because that is how the "9" glylph is handled in Latin and other languages using the Latin abbreviations (some of which were inherited from Greek conventions).
The "9" is not the only abbreviation glyph-shape used in the VMS. Many of these abbreviations were originally based on numbers, in pre-Carolingian and Carolingian days. The number 2 was also frequently used, most often representing "-ur" or "-tur". Sometimes the shape is tipped and resembles an r or c with a tail. A c with a tail can also be used for "cum" in Latin and "con" in Spanish.
One thing I'm certain of is that the VMS scribe was familiar with the glyphs used for Latin abbreviations. There are numerous examples and even a couple of places in which the 9 is superscripted. Here's an example from f33v, in which an apostrophe has been inserted to create dy'dy. Was this done to create a less common vord, or was the apostrophe added out of habit?