Regional Handwriting Variation - The Latin Writing System

The Latin Writing System

The lowercase letter a — In standard "Latin" type, the lowercase letter a has a hook on the top (and is called the "hook a"), unlike the form taught in elementary schools, which is also used in italic type. That form is called the "bowl a" (ɑ).

The lowercase letter e — Because ink has a tendency to fill the bowl of this letter, two variations have appeared. One is a mirror-image of the common Arabic numeral "3" (ε), which is also called "open E" or "Greek E". Another form is a "C" with a hyphen stroke coming out of the center (є).

The lowercase letter g — The lowercase letter g has a wide variety of shapes. The form seen in standard roman type differs widely from that taught in elementary schools (and italic type), having an "ear" at the upper right and a descender that starts from the left and ends in a bowl, rather than a loop. It ultimately derives from the Celtic alphabet, but was chosen solely to decrease the length of descenders and fit more lines of print on a page.

The lowercase letter p — In italic type, this lowercase letter often has a half-way ascender as the vertical extension of the descender. This is a development of the French way of writing this character, which also does not complete the bowl at the bottom. In early Finnish writing, the curve to the bottom was omitted, thus the resulting letter resembled a 'n' with a descender ('ɲ').

The lowercase letter q — In block letters, some Europeans like to cross the descender to prevent confusion with the numeral 9, which also can be written with a straight stem. In North America the descender often ends with a hook curving up to the right.

The lowercase letter r — For a form used in the Middle Ages, see half r.

The lowercase letter s — See long s.

The lowercase letters u and v — These letters have a common origin and were once written according to the location in the word rather than the sound. The v came first; the u originally had a loop extending to the left and was only used to start words. All other locations for either u or v were written with the latter. In Germany (especially southern Germany), Austria and Switzerland, lowercase u is often written with a horizontal stroke or swish over it (ū, ũ), to distinguish it from n.

The capital letter A — Two common variations are the usual triangle on legs, which in some artistic drawings lacks the crossbar (Λ), and an enlarged version of the "bowl a" (ɑ). On road signs in Ireland, and sometimes elsewhere, a form that goes back to the handwriting of the Middle Ages can be seen, that which has the cross-bar droop in the middle.

The capital letter J — In Germany, this letter is often written with a long stroke to the left at the top. This is to distinguish it from the capital letter "I".

The capital letter S — In Japan, this letter is often written with a single serif added to the end of the stroke.

The capital letter Z — This letter is usually written with three strokes. In parts of Europe such as Germany and Spain, it is commonly written with a short horizontal crossbar added through the middle. This version is sometimes preferred in mathematics to help distinguish it from the numeral 2. In Polish, the character Ƶ is used as an allographic variant of the letter Ż. In Japan it is often written with a short diagonal crossbar through the middle.