# cursive writing (Roman alphabet)



## yuechu

大家好！

I was wondering how to say "Do they still teach cursive nowadays?" in Chinese. (Context: talking about the education system in countries which use the Roman alphabet)
The dictionary says 草书, but that sounds like a type of calligraphy in Chinese, doesn't it?

Would anyone know how to translate this?
Thanks!


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## SimonTsai

I think that 書寫體 is what you are looking for.


yuechu said:


> The dictionary says 草书, but that sounds like a type of calligraphy in Chinese, doesn't it?


Yes, it does. 草書 is something like 張旭's and 懷素's calligraphical works.


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## hx1997

手写体 seems to be the more popular term over here.


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## yuechu

SimonTsai said:


> I think that 書寫體 is what you are looking for.


I just googled it and it's exactly what "cursive writing" is! Thanks! 




SimonTsai said:


> Yes, it does. 草書 is something like 張旭's and 懷素's calligraphical works.


Wow, that looks so difficult to understand. Can most Chinese people 华人 understand what characters those are?



hx1997 said:


> 手写体 seems to be the more popular term over here.


Thanks, hx1997! I googled it and it looks like something I have to study in the future! (getting used to how Chinese people handwrite characters. At the moment, I am only used to 楷体 and how Chinese characters look in digital form (or standard fonts))

谢谢！😃


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## SimonTsai

Here is an alternative name to 書寫體: 英文草*寫 * (and not 英文草*書 *).


yuechu said:


> Wow, that looks so difficult to understand.


The linked images in post #2 are 肚痛帖 and 自敘帖, two masterpieces. I personally rate 自敘帖 higher, but different people have different opinions.

肚痛帖 and 自敘帖 are exemplars of 狂草, as opposed to 章草, 今草, and 行草. 狂草 is the most illegible of the four, and that's why it is described as 狂.


> Can most Chinese people 华人 understand what characters those are?


No, they aren't legible to the overwhelming majority of Chinese people.

狂草 is typically appreciated solely for its aesthetic value and is not used for communications. To ensure legibility, write in 正楷 or 行楷 instead. (蘭亭序, by 王羲之, is a celebrated work, and is ranked as 天下第一行書.)


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## Jake_Chan

cursive: handwriting in which letters are formed and joined in a rapid flowing style

'*连笔字体*' would be an understandable translation for 'cursive'.

*笔*：*笔画* strokes
*连笔*：*笔画都连了起来*：Strokes in a character or a word are jointed.



However, If you translate the sentence as: _他们如今还教连笔字体吗?_，it sounds a bit unnatural.


Here's my translation:

Do they still teach cursive nowadays?
他们如今还教人写连笔字吗?


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## SuperXW

What Simon has suggested is hard to understand in Mainland China, vise versa, I guess.

手写体:
Any hand-writing style, can be simply:







连笔字体(jointed strokes style) in Chinese:




连笔字体 (jointed strokes style) in English:




Cursive Alphabet in English:



It can be a type of 手写字体/连笔字体, but I don't think it has a particular formal Chinese name.


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## stephenlearner

I guess 100% of Chinese students in public schools don't learn how to write cursive writing. 

But I used to teach cursive writing in a small private school. 

We call it 花体字. Believe me, it's the standard term used among teachers (although not many in China) who teach it.


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## hx1997

We were actually required to buy a 意大利斜体字帖 in school and imitate the writing in it... But by doing so, everyone seems to have learned a writing style that is similar to italics but without the letters joined (like in the first image that SuperXW posted).


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## stephenlearner

hx1997 said:


> We were actually required to buy a 意大利斜体字帖 in school


I was wondering why you called it 意大利…Does it have anything to do with Italy? Italics is italics. Cursive writing is cursive writing. They are totally different.


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## hx1997

Because that was the name of the 字帖. I did not invent it. I know they are different, but italic script is a type of cursive writing, isn't it? (Italic script originated from Italy, according to Wikipedia.)


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## dojibear

hx1997 said:


> italic script is a type of cursive writing, isn't it


No. According to Wikipedia, "Italic script" was a name for one style of writing by hand, used in Italy during the 1500s. Wikipedia says "By the 1550s the Italic script had become so laborious that it fell out of use with scribes."

But it was not cursive writing. That is a style that connects letters. Here is an example of modern (1900s) cursive writing:


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## hx1997

dojibear said:


> But it was not cursive writing.


Well, according to Wikipedia, "Italic" is a subclass of cursive style, and the article "Italic script" is given as a reference. In that article, the script is described as "semi-cursive".



dojibear said:


> Wikipedia says "By the 1550s the Italic script had become so laborious that it fell out of use with scribes."


The original, authentic Italic script may have fallen out of use, but I think modern imitation of the style still exists. According to the Lexico dictionary, when it describes handwriting, "italic" means "_modelled_ on 16th-century Italian handwriting, typically _cursive_ and sloping and with elliptical or pointed letters."


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## dojibear

The linked Wikipedia article starts by saying that *cursive* is any style of penmanship in which characters are written *joined* in a flowing manner, in contrast to *block* letters. That is the meaning I used. 

The article goes on to use the word "cursive" with other meanings, to talk about writing at different times in history and in different countries. It lists the names of various styles. Some of those names have the word "cursive" in them.



dojibear said:


> But it was not *cursive *writing. That is a style that connects letters.


Here I was using the standard US meaning. In that meaning, all varieties of hand-written text fall into two categories. Each category has 2 standard terms:

(A) *block letters* (*printing*): 26 capital letters + 26 lowercase letters
(B) *cursive *(*script*): 26 capital letters + 26 lowercase letters

Students in US elementary schools learn a simple version of both (104 symbols). But they don't learn a specific named style: everyone's handwriting is different.

Sentences written by hand (in school, personal life and business) use cursive/script. Block letters are used in mathematics, on signs, and in some informal uses. Printing presses (books, etc.), typewriters and computers use block letters.


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## hx1997

I see, but still, in the first image of the Wikipedia article on Italic script, it seems some letters are indeed joined. For example, the combination "st" is consistently written joined (on lines 2 and 4), and the word "man" on line 1 is joined, among others. Does cursive writing require that all the letters be joined when possible? (It does not look like block letters either to me.)

Edit: Oh, I just realized we might be drifting off the topic once again. I'm sorry.


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