Every script your family wrote in, explained letter by letter
Handwriting changed faster than language did. A letter written a century ago can be unreadable to a fluent speaker today — not because the words are unfamiliar, but because the letters are. Each script below is set out one letter at a time.
Russian cursive
1708 — present · Russia, USSR
The hand behind two centuries of Russian letters, diaries and records.
- 33 letters, 4 abolished in 1918
- Six letters read as Latin letters they are not
- Unchanged in everyday use since Peter I's 1708 reform
German Kurrent
1500s — 1941 · German-speaking Europe
The German hand banned overnight in 1941, and unreadable to most Germans since.
- Abolished by decree in 1941, not by disuse
- Long s and ligatures throughout
- e and n are near-identical strokes
Sütterlin
1915 — 1941 · German schools
The simplified Kurrent taught in German schools for one generation.
- Taught in schools 1915 — 1941 only
- Upright, where older Kurrent slants
- Same letters as Kurrent, simpler strokes
Hebrew cursive
1700s — present · Eastern Europe, Israel
The everyday Hebrew and Yiddish hand — nothing like the square letters.
- 22 letters, none resembling their printed forms
- Written right to left
- Five letters take a different final form
Coming next: Ukrainian cursive · Greek cursive · Arabic cursive · pre-1918 Cyrillic chancery
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