Russian cursive

Main article:Russian language

See also:Russian Alpha betandRussian orthography

Text written by a foreign student in Russian cursive. The text is called Встреча в Бразилии (meeting in Brazil).

Russian cursiveis a variant of the Russian Alpha bet used for writing by hand. It is typically referred to as(ру́сский) рукопи́сный шрифт(rússky) rukopísny shrift,"(Russian) handwritten font". It is the handwritten form of the modernRussianCyrillic script,used instead of theblock lettersseen in printed material. In addition, Russianitalicsfor lowercase letters are often based on Russian cursive (such as lowercaseт,which resembles Latinm). Most handwritten Russian, especially in personal letters and schoolwork, uses the cursive Alpha bet. In Russian schools most children are taught from first grade how to write with this script.

History

Aukasewritten in the 17th-century Russian chancery cursive

The Russian (and Cyrillic in general) cursive was developed during the 18th century on the base of the earlier Cyrillictachygraphicwriting (ско́ропись,skoropis,"rapid or running script" ), which in turn was the 14th–17th-centurychancery handof the earlier Cyrillicbookhandscripts (calledustavandpoluustav). It became the handwritten counterpart of so-called "civil"(orPetrine) printed script of books. In order,modern Cyrillicitalictypefaces are based (in their lowercase part) mostly on the cursive shape of the letters.

18th-century Russian italic font, note unusual "square" minusculeв

The resulting cursive bears many similarities with the Latin cursive.For example, the modern Russian cursive letter "п"may coincide with Latin cursive" n "(𝓃) (despite having completely different sound values); both upright and italic printed typefaces demonstrate less similarity.

One must not confuse the historical Russian chancery hand (ско́ропись,skóropis'), the contemporary Russian cursive (рукопи́сное письмо́,rukopísnoe pis'mó) and the contemporary Russianstenography.The latter is completely different from the other two, though it is sometimes calledско́ропись,skóropis',like the former.

Features

Russian cursive is much like contemporary English and other Latin cursives. But unlike Latin handwriting, which can range from fully cursive to heavily resembling the printed typefaces and where idiosyncratic mixed systems are most common, it is standard practice to write in Russian cursive almost exclusively.

Ambiguities

There exists some ambiguity from the fact that several lowercase cursive letters consist (entirely or in part) of the element that is identical to the dotless Latin cursive letterı,the cursive Greek letterιor a half of the cursive letteru,namelyи, л, м, ш, щ, ы.Therefore, certain combinations of these Russian letters cannot be unambiguously deciphered without knowing the language or without a broader context. For example, in the wordsволшебник,"magician" andдомик,"little house" the combinationsлшandмиare written identically. The wordлишишь,"you will deprive" written in cursive consists almost exclusively of these elements. There are examples of different words that become absolutely identical in their cursive form, e.g.мщу"I avenge" andлицу(dative ofлицо"face" ). The most radical form of this, though not well known, is the Tajik wordмиллииmeaning 'national'. It consists only of these elements.

Some words in Russian may pose a challenge due to the similarities between the letters Ш, Щ, И, Л, М in cursive.

The word решили (reshili), which means "they decided", or "it was decided". In red, a decomposition of the handwritten text showing the block letter equivalent.

Variants, use of diacritics

A signature ofFyodor Dostoevskyshowing a stylized macron above the ⟨т⟩ in "Достоевскій"

In some forms of cursive, the distinction betweenтandшmay become elusive because both are written in the shapes of eithermorɯ.To alleviate this case of ambiguity, ahorizontal barcan be written above the character (likem̅or rarelyɯ̅) if it isт,or below (likeɯ̲or rarelym̲) if it isш.Also, writingтin its printed form (theTshape) rather than its usualmshape is common.

The letterдmay also be written in the shape ofꝺor∂.

Differences to Serbian and Macedonian cursives

Several letters in Russian cursive are different from the cursive used in theSerbianandMacedonianlanguages. Thus, Serbian/Macedonian cursive lowercase г looks the same as in Russian with additional macron, п is written like the cursive Latinuwith macron (ū), and the letter т is written in the shape ofɯ̅.

Charts

• 
  Varieties of Russian calligraphic cursive from an 1835 dictionary
• 
  Pre-reformRussian calligraphic cursive from a 1916 schoolbook
• 
  Modern cursive taught in schools

See also

• Cursive
• Russian Alpha bet
• Skoropis′