writing out some chinese characters for my mahjong page background had me thinking about how u can tell who actually speaks the language by what their handwriting looks like
then it got me wondering about how it works in russian, which i've learned a little about before. i know people practically never write in block letters (i.e. the way cyrillic is displayed on a computer) but how people even read russian cursive is a mystery to me
another interesting detail is that i've hardly written in chinese by hand since the pandemic. anyone else have a similar experience? idk, just wondering
russian cursive is just like english cursive :p some letters are different but the differences are consistent. for written japanese i know people often “smear”/abbreviate strokes so that some characters are only readable via stroke order and the general contour of the kanji/kana
for written korean the stroke order must also be correct for handwriting to look natural. particularly in stylised handwriting, whether cutesy gel pen or archaic ink brush. i never noticed it before, but handwritten english seems much more lenient on stroke order…
@iwillneverbehappy i guess it makes sense it's similar to english cursive, i think i've just been spooked by seeing terrifying images like this: https://files.catbox.moe/c8uwkb.webp lol. also huh til that japanese cursive is seriously condensed: https://files.catbox.moe/u76ydp.webp. i've only ever seen anything like this in some very flowy styles of chinese calligraphy
it's interesting that you point out stroke order influences how characters look because now that i think about it you're absolutely right. i guess i hadn't considered it before because i've always just written (chinese) characters based on vibes, so generally left-right, top-bottom. (is my handwriting secretly shit?) i can see how writing strokes randomly would result in wonky ill-proportioned characters though
the unreadable russian cursive is kind of a meme (equivalent of writing “minimum” in english cursive, sort of a worst-case scenario). top-down and left-right heuristic for chinese characters is a thing + correct me if i’m wrong, but once you learn the stroke order of a radical, that ordering will be correct for every instance of the radical in other characters, right?
I've had conversations about this describing the difference as between writing and drawing letters/characters (literacy in the latin alphabet comes up at my job fairly often). People will start a letter in insane places if never formally taught. I love it.
@iwillneverbehappy that seems a lot more realistic lol. and about the radicals: i think so? that's how i've always taken it, anyway. though i studied the language from the same textbooks as kids in china when i was a kid i've hardly formally learned stroke order, it was always just heuristics.. or maybe i just zoned out, who knows
then it got me wondering about how it works in russian, which i've learned a little about before. i know people practically never write in block letters (i.e. the way cyrillic is displayed on a computer) but how people even read russian cursive is a mystery to me
another interesting detail is that i've hardly written in chinese by hand since the pandemic. anyone else have a similar experience? idk, just wondering
russian cursive is just like english cursive :p some letters are different but the differences are consistent. for written japanese i know people often “smear”/abbreviate strokes so that some characters are only readable via stroke order and the general contour of the kanji/kana
for written korean the stroke order must also be correct for handwriting to look natural. particularly in stylised handwriting, whether cutesy gel pen or archaic ink brush. i never noticed it before, but handwritten english seems much more lenient on stroke order…
@iwillneverbehappy i guess it makes sense it's similar to english cursive, i think i've just been spooked by seeing terrifying images like this: https://files.catbox.moe/c8uwkb.webp lol. also huh til that japanese cursive is seriously condensed: https://files.catbox.moe/u76ydp.webp. i've only ever seen anything like this in some very flowy styles of chinese calligraphy
it's interesting that you point out stroke order influences how characters look because now that i think about it you're absolutely right. i guess i hadn't considered it before because i've always just written (chinese) characters based on vibes, so generally left-right, top-bottom. (is my handwriting secretly shit?) i can see how writing strokes randomly would result in wonky ill-proportioned characters though
the unreadable russian cursive is kind of a meme (equivalent of writing “minimum” in english cursive, sort of a worst-case scenario). top-down and left-right heuristic for chinese characters is a thing + correct me if i’m wrong, but once you learn the stroke order of a radical, that ordering will be correct for every instance of the radical in other characters, right?
I've had conversations about this describing the difference as between writing and drawing letters/characters (literacy in the latin alphabet comes up at my job fairly often). People will start a letter in insane places if never formally taught. I love it.
Very obvious when people are drawing the picture of a word instead of writing it out once you know to look for it.
@manulzone “drawing a picture of a word” is such a good way of phrasing it
@iwillneverbehappy that seems a lot more realistic lol. and about the radicals: i think so? that's how i've always taken it, anyway. though i studied the language from the same textbooks as kids in china when i was a kid i've hardly formally learned stroke order, it was always just heuristics.. or maybe i just zoned out, who knows
@manulzone i second visualculture, drawing a character vs writing it is exactly what i was getting at!