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Document Details : Title: Notes de paléographie arménienne à propos de la lettre ayb Author(s): VIDAL-GORÈNE, Chahan Journal: Revue des Études Arméniennes Volume: 39 Date: 2020 Pages: 143-168 DOI: 10.2143/REA.39.0.3288969 Abstract : The letter ayb is a paleographical oddity within the Armenian alphabet. No other letter comes in a such great variety of shapes, from the earliest monumental stone inscriptions of the 5th century to the contemporary cursive script. Numerous factors have likely contributed to the letter changing shape, like the medium-shifting, the writing-tool change, the nature and purpose of the document or the acceleration of copying. The ductus of a letter, as it generates numerous shapes, may also often change through drawing simplification. As to the letter ayb, the earliest traces show drawing complexification, especially regarding the erkat‛agir, no matter the nature or purpose of the writing. The chronological classification of shapes, albeit useful for relative dating, fails to represent the process of evolution of the letter. In this paper, we suggest to group genetic forms of the letter ayb, no matter chronological order, in order to highlight the transformation of the ductus and offer a draft of new grouping of forms which might bring to light new criteria for relative dating. The corpus under study consists notably of well known and well-studied inscriptions and manuscripts prior to the 9th century and of fragments and inscriptions discovered during a field mission in June 2019. |
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