# Handwritten Greek



## panettonea

Does Greek handwriting have both printed and "cursive" forms?  If so, which is more common today?


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## sotos

The latter is the most common.


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## panettonea

sotos said:


> The latter is the most common.



Ευχαριστώ, sotos.  Do you know of a link that illustrates how to write cursive Greek?  I usually print it when I make notes to myself, but I think cursive might speed things up a little.


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## Eltheza

Hi panettonea!

I found this helpful and bookmarked it some time ago:

http://sites.dartmouth.edu/ellinikasimera/?page_id=335

My Greek handwriting is of the printed type! It took me ages to get to grips with the 'cursive' variety. The way a dear friend writes pi looks like omega to me and mi looks like kappa! All terribly confusing!


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## panettonea

Eltheza said:


> Hi panettonea!
> 
> I found this helpful and bookmarked it some time ago:
> 
> http://sites.dartmouth.edu/ellinikasimera/?page_id=335



Thanks, Eltheza.   

So is it possible to connect all the Greek letters using cursive?  It looks like some of them don't quite connect the way our letters do in English.



> My Greek handwriting is of the printed type! It took me ages to get to grips with the 'cursive' variety. The way a dear friend writes pi looks like omega to me and mi looks like kappa! All terribly confusing!



So you learned Greek cursive only to revert to printed characters in the end?  

_Been there, done that, but won't do it again._ 

Incidentally, in the U.S. they're starting to remove the teaching of cursive from schools, which I think is a big mistake.


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## Eltheza

Why are they removing the teaching of cursive in schools in the U.S.? What's the pedagogical (big word!) theory behind it?

I write quite neatly in English, so I like my Greek 'printed' style and I can write quite quickly. Also, I write in Greek to English friends who live in Greece and they can understand the printed style better.

As to your first question, probably, but I don't really know. There are all sorts of handwriting styles in English and I suppose this applies to Greek handwriting too.

All the best!


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## sotos

If you want a scholarly insight in the cursive Greek, you have to look in Byzantine Palaeography books (e.g. Mioni). Pi looking like omega etc are medieval forms of letters. 
You may start from here http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byz/paleolinks.asp


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## panettonea

Eltheza said:


> Why are they removing the teaching of cursive in schools in the U.S.? What's the pedagogical (big word!) theory behind it?



I think because it isn't "quantitative."    IOW, everything in the U.S. is becoming about standardized tests. The whole curriculum is geared toward passing standardized tests at the end of a quarter/semester/year.  Some teachers are even being judged by the performance of their students on these tests!  As such, cursive writing doesn't fit into this inane scheme.  Strict emphasis on standardized testing is the destruction of real education, if you ask me.   



> I write quite neatly in English



My printing is actually neater than my cursive.  



> so I like my Greek 'printed' style and I can write quite quickly. Also, I write in Greek to English friends who live in Greece and they can understand the printed style better.



Why not write English to your English friends?  



> As to your first question, probably, but I don't really know. There are all sorts of handwriting styles in English and I suppose this applies to Greek handwriting too.



It seems that it might be difficult to connect letters such as _ρ_ to the others.  But Greeks have had thousands of years to perfect the skill, so there must be some way to do it.  



> All the best!



Thanks--you too.


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## ireney

Mod note: Please refrain from further discussion of off topic matters in this thread. PMs are your friends.


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## panettonea

sotos said:


> If you want a scholarly insight in the cursive Greek, you have to look in Byzantine Palaeography books (e.g. Mioni). Pi looking like omega etc are medieval forms of letters.
> You may start from here http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/byz/paleolinks.asp



Thanks for the link.

I found this page too, which gives detailed instructions on how to form letters.  It only talks a little about cursive, though:

http://www.foundalis.com/lan/hw/grkhandw.htm


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## Αγγελος

panettonea said:


> So is it possible to connect all the Greek letters using cursive?  It looks like some of them don't quite connect the way our letters do in English.



When I was taught cursive writing in grade school 50 years ago (we called it καλλιγραφία), we were explicitly taught not to connect the letters δ, λ, ρ and φ with the following letter. All other letters were connected, as were all letters of the Latin alphabet. You won't believe how we were taught to write ξ and ψ!


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