CONTRACTIONS AND LIGATURES USED IN THE GREEK LANGUACE.

THE labour which a continual multiplication of manuscripts required, was the cause of the invention of sigla, ligatures, and contractions, in order that the writing might be more rapidly executed. Nor even for some time after the invention of printing, did those signs, peculiar to the Greek language, decline; on the contrary, many books of the sixteenth century are now extant, where the words are almost as much contracted as in the Grecian manuscripts of three hundred years previous. This, however, is not the place for a dissertation on the abbreviations of any tongue; more especially as we have already given two articles upon the subject:--one of them, on Latin abbreviations, the reader will find in page 210: and the other on the Characters of the Domesday-book, and other ancient Records of England, at page 248. The present list, therefore, consists only of the arbitrary marks in use in the Greek language, which widely differ from those of the English, by having some similarity to the letters they represent, although complicated and confused by being linked together: hence they were denominated ligatures, from the Italian word legatura, a fillet, or tie. It remains only to be remarked, that the modern Greeks retain in some degree the custom of contracting words in their writings; and that M. Calbo, who lately visited this country, had, by his own extraordinary industry, amassed together the most extensive and perfect series of Greek contractions, which probably any person was ever yet possessed of. The authorities which have been used in compiling the present collection, are Calligraphia Graca, by John Hodgkin-Lond. 1794,

Folio. Astle's Origin and Progress of Writing-Lond. 1803, Quarto. A Practical Grammar of the Greek Tongue-Lond. 1740, 8vo. and Elementa Lingua Graca, by Dr. J. Moor-Edin. 1806, 8vo.

• It will be proper to remind the reader, that he must not consider the foregoing list of contractions as containing the whole which have been invented; their number being so great, that they would have extended our list to more than treble its present size, without proving of greater utility to the compositor, for whose assistance they are here presented. For the following reasons we have deemed it sufficient to insert those only which have been generally used in England: first, it not unfrequently happens, in the reprints of early printed books, that the compositor meets with Greek, in which the ligatures have been used; but, then, such only as we have given are likely to arrest his attention; consequently it would be fruitless to perplex him with what he can have no occasion for: secondly, the multiplicity of characters invented by the Scribes, prior to, and during the infancy of the art, can be regarded in no other light than as mere curiosities, which are interesting only to the scholar and the antiquary: thirdly, it is not probable that an instance can be adduced at the present day, of an early Greek manuscript, containing ligatures, &e. being placed in the hands of a compositor: should it be required to print or extract from any such, they would, unquestionably, be tran scribed, in order to preserve them from liability to injury, while passing through the regular routine of a printing-office: fourthly, as they are now become obsolete, no author would think of copying contractions out of any Greek manuscript, well knowing that the printer could not execute them for him. Under the above consider. ations, we flatter ourselves that we have amply fulfilled our duty on this head, in furnishing the above list.

ALPHABETS OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES.

BESIDE the Greek and Chaldean-Hebrew Alphabets already given, a Printer's Grammar generally contains specimens of many others, belonging principally to the Eastern Nations, which are both obsolete and modern. The greater part of them are now rarely used; but in order to give an idea of the characters of other countries, as well at the present day, as at a former period, we have inserted an extensive collection of the most ancient and singular, so classed and explained, as to render a reference both easy and satisfactory. It has been, however, the principal defect of Typographical Grammars on this particular subject, that their information is so barren, that little else can be learned from them, beside the power of each letter, as it corresponds with the English Alphabet: the peculiar names of the characters are also omitted, and the reader is left in doubt whether the language be read from left to right, or from the right hand to the left. These faults evidently arose from the compilers copying after each other, without taking the trouble to gain any new or useful information; but in the present instance, as we have seen the error, so we have attempted to remedy it, by giving such an account, both of each language and the powers of the letters, that some idea is given to the reader of the genius and construction of the various tongues. This information has been the result of much labour and research; in addition to which, for the benefit of those who wish for further instruction on this peculiar branch of learning, we have mentioned the authorities consulted, to which they also may refer.