Thread: Suggestions on writing the Cyrillic letters

Does anyone have any suggestions or recourses on writing the Cyrillic alphabet? I do not understand how to write "Д" in print.

This may or may not be what you're looking for.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/LRC/RU ... /index.htm

Originally Posted by MidnightKat

Does anyone have any suggestions or recourses on writing the Cyrillic alphabet? I do not understand how to write "Д" in print.

The secret is not to print Cyrillic. It's possible, of course, but there's no point. You'll have to learn handwriting sooner or later, and the sooner the better. The link posted above is a good start. Unfortunately, it doesn't explain how to link the letters together. However, there are some threads on this forum about it.

You need to be able to recognize both print and cursive, mainly because some of the characters are completely different in cursive. Spend your time learning how to _write_ cursive. It's much much faster.

Here are two cheap ways to write printed D:

Thank you very much for the link as well the image. As I am just starting out, on my own for now, I take it that when writing Russian you typically use cursive as opposed to the print? Or are they both used when writing? As for me, when writing in English I use print exclusively simply because my hand writing is more legible. =)

Originally Posted by MidnightKat

Thank you very much for the link as well the image. As I am just starting out, on my own for now, I take it that when writing Russian you typically use cursive as opposed to the print? Or are they both used when writing? As for me, when writing in English I use print exclusively simply because my hand writing is more legible. =)

From what I've seen (observations of people in my local Russian community), it can be a mix. I've seen some people write in all cursive, and others who write in a mix of print and cursive (cursive for the hard letters like d, zh, etc). Signage and product lettering is typically in print letters, but I've also seen "fancy" letters used which may resemble cursive more than print. So again, learn both. And it's waaaay faster to write in full cursive.

Originally Posted by Matroskin Kot

The secret is not to print Cyrillic. It's possible, of course, but there's no point.

Unless you fill in the forms in Russian.

The history is that in the beginning there was only one kind of letter, and it looked like АБВГДЕ. There was no "lower case". But scribes had to sit all day and copy out text, so in order to write faster, they began to round off the letters. Originally, for example, the letter Д had a long tail descending from the right-most down stroke. Eventually the squarish part of the letter was rounded, becoming an "o", and the tail still fell down, but as the scribe hurried on to the next letter, he (they were all men as far as I know) no longer lifted his quill off the page, so you get that swash stroke as in д, which is, if not exactly, then nearly like English cursive g, that comes back up to the line and connects to the next letter.

This was called скоропись, literally "fast writing."

As someone mentioned above, the reason for cursive is that it is both faster and easier to do than print out each letter meticulously.

I looked around for some images to post without success.

Edit: I was hoping that the italic letters I quoted would come out looking correct, but my font has the д with the stem going up and to the left, and the g too much like its noncursive drawing. I hope your fonts produce more successful shapes!

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Originally Posted by Matroskin Kot

The secret is not to print Cyrillic. It's possible, of course, but there's no point.

Unless you fill in the forms in Russian.

Well, yes, that would be a reason to print. OK, I stand corrected. It's not pointless. Someday you might have to fill out forms in Russian, then you'll have to be able to print.

Д is like Л with "legs"

Here is state standart (GOST) for fonts. I used to learn it in University.

My husband (Russian) mixes print and script but tells me not to! LOL. I have a long commute on public transportation, so I learned to write all the letters in both print and script just by writing words and phrases again and again and again and asking him to look it over once in a while and make suggestions.

In script I have a lot of trouble connecting the ч and the г to the other letters. In print I feel comfortable with all the letters except the д, just like you!

Quick brag: at my best, here's the level I was at with writing:
http://www.melearnrussian.com/2009/04/that-was-me.html

Originally Posted by superterrific

Quick brag: at my best, here's the level I was at with writing:
http://www.melearnrussian.com/2009/04/that-was-me.html

Very nice!
And a great blog. I've read a few entries, very unteresting.

I'd like to make a few observation, though.

1.
Russian cursive writing should be tilted to the right a little. Leters should NOT be straight (some Russians do write "vertically", but we are talking about traditions here ). It's not critical and doesn't affect understanding, but it's a rule, however weird it may seem.
In fact Russian 1st graders use special notebooks with auxiliary inclined lines when they learn to write. Like this:
http://www.lang.ourfamily.com/propisi/pr2-13.gif

2.
You have a little problem with connecting letters like "м" or "л" (which have little "hooks" on both sides) with other "unhooked" letters.

Why is it important? Because an additional hook may change the letter. For example, "и" doesn't have a hook to the left. Adding it you turn it into "м" and your "Миша" is in fact "ммша". So when "м" and "и" meet each other you should prolongate "М"'s right hook until it meets "И". No additional loops are necessary. And it should look pretty much as if you just wrote two letters really close.

Something like this (sorry for my trembling hands, it's hard to write in cursive SLOWLY)


"Ч" and "г" are rather easy too. You just connect it to the previous letter:
either prolongating previous letter's right hook (if it has it, like м, т, etc.), until it meets "ч"/"г"
or prolongate ч's or г's little "nose" downwards, until it meets previous letter, if it doesn't have a right hook (like о or в).

Sounds complicated, but it's not. It's all about connecting the letters in the most economical way, following and prolonging the strokes you HAVE to write anyway (the shape of the letter itself).

PS. I'm mixing cursive and printed letters too: I almost always use printed "П", "Р", "Г" for the upper case when I write in cursive (I just like them better - they are faster to write, because unlike their cursive counterparts they can be written in a single stroke).