Cursive
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2008-07-13T20:22:19Z
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:''For the indie rock band, see [[Cursive (band)]].''
[[Image:Cursive.svg|right|thumb|300px|An example of a cursive [[alphabet]] — [[lower case]] and [[upper case]].]]
'''Cursive''' is any style of [[penmanship|handwriting]] that is designed for writing down notes and letters by hand. In the [[Latin languages|Latin]] and [[Cyrillic]] languages the letters in a word are connected, making a word one single complex stroke. In [[British English]], the phrase "'''joined-up writing'''" is far more commonly used, while the term "'''running writing'''" is sometimes used in Australia. Cursive is commonly known as simply "handwriting" in Canada. Cursive is considered distinct from the so-called "[[block letters|printing]]" or "[[block letters|block letter]]" style of handwriting, in which the letters of a word are unconnected, and from "print-writing", which is a cross between cursive and printing, with some unconnected letters and some connected. In the [[Hebrew cursive]] and [[Roman cursive]], the letters are not connected.
== Cursive English ==
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[[Image:Us declaration independence.jpg|thumb|[[United States Declaration of Independence]]]]
In the handwriting of [[William Bradford (1590-1657)|William Bradford]], in the early seventeenth century, most of the letters were separate, but a few were joined as in a cursive hand. By the late eighteenth century, a century and a half later, the situation had reversed; in [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s draft of the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] most but not all of the letters were joined. The presentation copy of the Declaration, written professionally a few days later, was written in a fully cursive hand. Eighty-seven years later, in the middle of the nineteenth century, [[Abraham Lincoln]] drafted the [[Gettysburg Address]] in a cursive hand that would not look out of place today.
[[Image:letter.posted.in.1894.arp.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Letter written in [[England]] in 1894, showing an example of cursive English from that time period.]]
In the [[eighteenth century|eighteenth]] and [[nineteenth century|nineteenth]] centuries, before the development of the typewriter, professional correspondence was written in cursive. This was called a "fair hand", meaning it looked good, and all clerks in a firm were trained to write in the exact same script.
In the early days of the [[post office]], letters were written in cursive — and to fit more text on a single sheet, the text was continued in lines crossing at 90 degrees from the original text.{{Fact|date=February 2008}} Block letters could not do this.
Although women's handwriting had noticeably different particulars from men's, the general forms were not prone to rapid change. In the mid-nineteenth century, comparatively few children were not taught cursive, and as it was an important skill, more emphasis could be placed on learning it; there was no pervasive striving for efficiency in the classroom. Few simplifications appeared as the middle of the twentieth century was reached. An example of the timeframe in which cursive came to be taught is that in the [[United States]], it would usually be taught in second or third grade (around ages seven to nine).
After the 1960s, it was decided that the teaching of cursive writing was more difficult than it needed to be. Forms of simply slanted characters, termed [[italic type|italic]], were argued as being easier and traditional cursive unnecessary. Also, the [[copyright]]ing of handwritten letter forms as a sort of [[typeface]] became profitable. Because of this, a number of various new forms of cursive appeared in the late twentieth century; [[D'Nealian]] and [[Zaner-Bloser]] are two of them. With the range of options available, handwriting became unstandardized across different school systems in different English-speaking countries.
With the advent of computers, cursive as a way of formalizing correspondence has fallen out of favor. Any task which would have once required a "fair hand" is now done using [[word processing]] and a [[Computer printer|printer]]. Increasingly, the teaching of cursive is being de-emphasized in schools, and is generally reserved only for situations such as timed tests with large writing portions, where it is considered faster, although this use too is falling out of favor. Many teens and young adults in Europe and North America no longer use cursive at all, although some often connect letters when printing in ways that are not considered correct in cursive, such as joining the cross-bar of a "t" to a following "i".
==Cursive Hebrew==
[[Image:hebrew cursive.png|thumb|300px|The Hebrew alphabet in cursive script, read from right to left.]]
{{main|Cursive Hebrew}}
'''Cursive Hebrew script''' is a style of Hebrew calligraphy that is very popular for writing [[Hebrew language|Modern Hebrew]] by hand, since it is easier to learn and faster to write than the traditional [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew script]]. It features round letter shapes as opposed to the standard "square" Hebrew script. Like other cursive systems, it was designed to make writing down notes easier.
==Cursive Roman==
[[Image:Hocgracili.jpg|thumb|180px|Example of old Roman cursive.]]
{{main|Roman cursive}}
'''Roman cursive''' is a form of [[handwriting]] (or a [[script (styles of handwriting)|script]]) used in [[ancient Rome]] and to some extent into the [[Middle Ages]]. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive, and new cursive. Old Roman [[cursive]], also called [[majuscule]] cursive and capitalis cursive, was the everyday form of handwriting used for writing letters, by merchants writing business accounts, by schoolchildren learning the [[Roman alphabet]], and even [[Roman Emperor|emperors]] issuing commands. New Roman cursive, also called [[minuscule cursive]] or later Roman cursive, developed from old Roman cursive. It was used from approximately the 3rd century to the 7th century, and uses letter forms that are more recognizable to modern eyes; "a", "b", "d", and "e" have taken a more familiar shape, and the other letters are proportionate to each other rather than varying wildly in size and placement on a line.
==Cursive Greek==
{{Main|History of the Greek alphabet}}
[[Image:Greek manuscript cursive 6th century.png|thumb|left|300px|Ancient Greek cursive script, 6th century A.D.]]
[[Image:Greek Handwriting.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Table of 19th-century Greek cursive letter forms]]
The [[Greek alphabet]] has had several cursive forms in the course of its development. In antiquity, a cursive form of handwriting was used in writing on [[papyrus]]. It employed slanted and partly connected letter forms as well as many [[ligature]]s. Some features of this handwriting were later adopted into Greek minuscule, the dominant form of handwriting in the medieval and early modern era. In the 19th and 20th centuries, an entirely new form of cursive Greek, more similar to contemporary Western European cursive scripts, was developed.
==Cursive Russian==
{{main|Russian cursive}}
<!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: [[Image:Russian_cursive_alphabet.jpg|thumb|150px|Standard Russian Cyrillic cursive alphabet with uppercase and lowercase.]] -->
The '''Russian Cursive [[Cyrillic]]''' alphabet is used (instead of [[Russian alphabet|the block letters]]) when handwriting the modern [[Russian Language]]. Some letters look much like Latin/Roman cursive alphabet letters but most have different sounds. Most handwritten Russian, especially personal letters and schoolwork uses the cursive Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet. Most children in Russian schools are taught by 1st grade how to write using this Russian script.
==Cursive Chinese==
Cursive forms of [[Chinese written language|Chinese characters]] are used in calligraphy; "running script" is the [[Semi-cursive script|semi-cursive]] form and [[Cursive script (East Asia)|"grass script"]] is the cursive.
==References==
{{reflist}}
== See also ==
{{Illustrated Wikipedia|Cursive_WikiWorld.png}}
* [[Cursive script (East Asia)|Cursive script]] (Grass script)
* [[Paper]]
* [[Pen]]
* [[Penmanship]]
* [[Spencerian Script]]
* [[Emphasis (typography)|Emphasis]]
* [[Kurrent]]
==External links==
*[http://www.iampeth.com/lessons.php Lessons in Calligraphy and Penmanship], including scans of classic nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century manuals and examples
*[http://hans.presto.tripod.com/penman/ The Golden Age of American Penmanship], including scans of the January 1932 issue of [[Austin Norman Palmer]]'s ''American Penman''
*[http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/handwriting.htm Download] Normal and Bold Victorian Modern Cursive electronic fonts
[[Category:Calligraphy]]
[[Category:Penmanship]]
[[Category:Writing]]
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[[it:Scrittura corsiva]]
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