Greek Handwriting

[Asterix]

Hello

I try slowly but with success to learn ancient greek.

By writing the greek letters, I asked myself if there is any
difference between greek letters typed and handwritten.

And any idea about connectin the single letter like in latin letters.

any suggestions are welcome.

thanx
asterix

[chad]

hi Asterix, different people hand-write Greek differently. some write it the same as "typed" greek; i running-write it, because i only hand-write when making quick notes, and running-writing is faster than printing (for me anyway).

i just scribbed an example and put it online for you (it scanned a bit scratchy but you'll see how i link the letters): go to the last link on

http://iliad.envy.nu

which is the first 2 stanzas of Sappho's first fragment (see Will's aoidoi site):

http://www.aoidoi.org/texts/sappho/sap-1.php

cheers, chad.

[dhaaz]

There is no modern, standardized Greek cursive script that I know of. If you want one, you'll have to invent your own or steal it from some past time. You could, for example, grab some things from this site dealing with the cursive script used on a certain document. For more techniques to shorten your writing time and to make your writing more cursive, I suggest looking into paleography; there is a decent amount of information (and a lot of images) available on the 'net, such as this page here on Byzantine paleography. For images, check out APIS, the Advanced Papyrological Information System. The more you integrate and develop on your own, the harder it will be for others to read your notes; if that doesn't matter -- and it probably doesn't, as you can easily write anything that needs to be read by others in the more common script --, then go at it.

[Μυ&]

There actually is a standardised Greek cursive script - at least in Modern Greek. I remember being made to practise it over and over again at school to perfect joined up writing. I don't have a scanner here so I can't post you a sample, but suffice it to say that most letters look nothing like their typed counterparts (a bit like Russian cursive script). For example, tau is an elongated inverse s and pi is similar to an omega with a round squiggle added on top. Great fun - I have no idea of their origin, tho'.

[blue]

^ yup. there is indeed a modern greek script. thing is...it doesn't look "greek". it's a pain to learn and must be written slowly for clarity's sake, as many of the letters look far too much like other letters when written quickly. for this reason, you shouldn't bother learning it till you already know greek, so you'll know what those certain illegible letters are, or at least be able to make a good guess.

the printed greek (like, printed in a book) is based on handwriting, and i think it's very beautiful. since it is based on handwriting, it's also pretty easy to write. amost all of the things i've seen written in greek by native greeks have been in "print", so i guess they're pretty happy with it.