Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site harvard.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!decvax!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!albert From: albert@harvard.ARPA (David Albert) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish,net.nlang Subject: Re: Writing from right to left Message-ID: <369@harvard.ARPA> Date: Fri, 8-Feb-85 12:18:36 EST Article-I.D.: harvard.369 Posted: Fri Feb 8 12:18:36 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 06:56:07 EST References: <2050@pegasus.UUCP> <128@ihn5l.UUCP> <443@hou2f.UUCP> <5849@rochester.UUCP> <71@spar.UUCP> Organization: Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard Lines: 27 Xref: watmath net.religion.jewish:1421 net.nlang:2566 > Recently I've become interested in Hebrew. Unfortunately, I've never > seen anyone write Hebrew characters, so my letters are quite ugly. Are > there any general rules for drawing the script? Do you usually start > at the upper left or the upper right of a letter? Take, for instance, > the word \b're:shiyth\. Would most people write its strokes in the > order that I have guessed? The letters you used were the "printing" letters as opposed to the "handwriting" letters; the two alphabets are distinct, and, at least in Israel, the printing alphabet is handwritten only by children in the first grade, after which, with virtually no exceptions, everyone uses the handwriting alphabet. Although it is hard to formulate a general handwriting rule because the letters are each so different, semicircular parts of the letters are generally drawn in a clockwise motion. Thus, for instance, the letter 'shin', which when handwritten looks very much like the letter 'e', is written in the reverse manner from the way one usually writes an 'e' in English. -- "...sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." David Albert ihnp4!ut-sally!harvard!albert (albert@harvard.ARPA)