Contraction Loss Detector
Measure how many scribal contraction abbreviations survive from exemplar to copy: exact percent change with the stated rating bands (no change at zero, minor under five percent dropped, moderate five to fifteen, major above fifteen, any increase is expansion).
Description
Measure how many scribal contraction abbreviations survive from exemplar to copy: exact percent change with the stated rating bands (no change at zero, minor under five percent dropped, moderate five to fifteen, major above fifteen, any increase is expansion).
Contraction Loss Detector: Measure how many scribal contraction abbreviations survive from exemplar to copy: exact percent change with the stated rating bands (no change at zero, minor under five percent dropped, moderate five to fifteen, major above fifteen, any increase is expansion).
When to use Contraction Loss Detector
Use this palaeographic utility to apply a stated dating, script, abbreviation, codicological, metrological, layout, or condition rule consistently while preparing manuscripts for scholarly review.
- Exemplar forms
- Abbreviated forms counted in the exemplar.
- Copy forms
- Abbreviated forms counted in the copy.
How Contraction Loss Detector works
Measure how many scribal contraction abbreviations survive from exemplar to copy: exact percent change with the stated rating bands (no change at zero, minor under five percent dropped, moderate five to fifteen, major above fifteen, any increase is expansion). The tool evaluates the supplied inputs together and returns the named outputs below; it does not infer omitted operating conditions or change the units shown.1
- Net change %
- Signed percent change from exemplar to copy.
- Lost forms
- Forms present in the exemplar but absent in the copy.
- Added forms
- Forms introduced by the copyist.
- Loss rating
- Stated-band rating of abbreviation retention.
Limitations and assumptions
- Script and manuscript evidence varies by language, region, institution, period, scribe, material, restoration, and cataloguing convention. A heuristic flag or score is not an authoritative date, hand attribution, reading, provenance, or conservation diagnosis.
- Use finite inputs in the displayed units and preserve more precision than the final presentation requires. Independently verify safety-critical, financial, compliance, or production decisions.
Alternative or Complementary approaches
Retain page images, scale, foliation, material, provenance, diplomatic transcription, uncertainty, and comparison exemplars; confirm conclusions with codicological context and specialist judgment.
References
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Palaeography — Wikipedia contributors
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