Sequential word repetitions in the VMS

[pfeaster]

So I hope you can prove what you said because the claim is yours. But even if that happens, a few exceptions, as I said, do not allow us to define the general structure or treat strong probabilities as a secondary assumption.

My claim is based on experiences transcribing documents, and the issue arises frequently enough to be a regular cause of frustration: it can be difficult to know whether to include a space in a transcription or not.  That said, it's easier to notice than it is to document and demonstrate.  For now, I'll present just two examples I have readily at hand that bracket the fifteenth century on either side.  Here's a French document dated January 4, 1399 (old style; modern January 14, 1400), in which we see a phrase clearly written as both "arpens de terres" and "arpens deterres" in close proximity.

   

And You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.'s a link to a published transcription of a German register with entries for 1500-1503 in which we see "mitnamen" and "mit namen" alternating in different years.  Of course these could have been written by different people; I don't have a facsimile.  But "mitnamen" is the unexpected variant based on modern expectations ("mit Namen"), and I can provide a facsimile of the first line of a document dated 1489 that clearly runs these words together, suggesting that we shouldn't assume in the other case that this was a mistake on the part of the transcriber.

   

Not intended as "proof" -- just as a couple illustrations of chronic inconsistency in spacing during this general period.

To bring this back to the topic of the thread, the only factors that separate repetitions such as "daiin daiin" from repetitions such as "oror" would seem to be the length of the repeated segments and the presence or absence of spaces between the repetitions.  Could these be manifestations of the same phenomenon?