Jax wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:33 pm
To begin with the following English letters will be used for Greek unical letters. Sorry for any confusion.
C = Lunate Sigma
A = Alpha
E = Epsilon
H = Eta
Th = Theta
I = Iota
K = Kappa
L = Lambda
N = Nu
O = Omicron
P = Pi
R = Rho
T = Tau
Y = Upsilon
X = Chi
Om= Omega
NS = Nomina Sacra
One thing about the NS in the first three centuries is that the NS – ThN, ThC, ThY, and ThOm, and KE, KN, KC, KY, and KOm are unique as the only NS that uses the contracted form only.
Next up is YE, YN, YC, YY, and YOm with the forms YIN, YIC, and YIY found only in p46.
After this we have the contracted forms XN, XC, XY, and XOm used at about the same rate as the forms XRN, XRC, XRY, and XROm with only one instance of a XR used in p18.
Also the contracted form IN, IC, IY being on an equal footing with the forms IHN, IHC, IHY with one variant form IHCY found in p37 and two variant forms of IH found in p18 and p45.
There seem to be no other contracted NS other than PC as one example in p22.
P18, p37, p45, and p46 seem to be the texts that have the most variants of contracted forms of the NS with p46 having both contracted and non-contracted forms in the same text as well as PNYMA in non-contracted form PNA, PNI, PNC, and in plain text.
P45 is another example of contracted and non-contracted forms being used in the same text but without non-NS forms being used.