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xkcd #2912: Cursive Letters
(imgs.xkcd.com)
Alt text:
๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐ฌ๐ช๐น๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ช๐ต ๐ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐น๐ป๐ธ๐ซ๐ช๐ซ๐ต๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ถ๐ธ๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐พ๐ท ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฎ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ต๐ธ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฌ๐ช๐ผ๐ฎ ๐บ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ช๐ต๐ผ๐ธ ๐ช ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ป๐ธ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ๐ฎ๐ป.
Omitted is the capital Q that looks like a 2.
Go ahead and tell me that whole thing wasn't a direct result of early 20th century lead emissions.
It's there, almost all the way to the right, about 1/3 from the top.
That's a different Q.
This Q really looks nearly identical to a 2. So, for many of us in 3rd grade, we wrote about the 2ueen who 2uestioned why ducks say 2uack. It was 2uite difficult.
This one. 2uentin and Jammy
Isn't it Tammy?
That's a very J-shaped T.
Yep! Now look for the capital J in the xkcd image, hehe.
There isn't one, is there?
There is, actually: far right, about 1/3 the way up, below the obvious Q.
I thought that was a lowercase f. Doesn't look anything like the cursive J we learned as kids.
Lowercase f is to the left of it for extra confusion.
My mum's name started with J, so I have seen that style of J often
It's the one next to the lowercase f, to the right of it
I don't think I've ever seen someone write a J with the top extending beyond the root. The inward curvature of the foot I think is because it loops around and connects with the ยซaยป afterwards (that connection is either very faint or not visible in the picture)
IIRC, cursive capital
Qis supposed to start way down, so that it'd look like anOwith a broken infinity symbol in its butt, like this:The direction of the strokes in the image is not how I learned it, though. Stroke 1 for the capital starts where stroke 2 starts, but going clockwise until just past where it starts, then smoothly start the second stroke (same direction as shown in the image).
However, I can see how it can look like a more flowy
2and how people can say "yeah, that's a capital Q." Heck, cursive lowercaserbarely looks like anrbut people kinda get it.Perhaps in your school. When I was in grade school learning cursive, the Q started high and looked like a 2.
I'm actually glad if they changed it.
These days, I avoid writing, but can do cursive, and will aim more for recognizable upper-case letters than standards.
Oh, yeah! It can vary from place to place and even from school to school even in the same place! There were even people saying that they can guess from which school someone graduated from based on how they do cursive. I think that's just nuts.
My cursive nowadays is just reserved for when Iโ really need to write fast, and would tend towards some kind of a personal shorthand than any sort of legibility. ๐
Not only did it look like a 2 when I learned it, there was a Ramona book where she liked the cursive Q because it looked like a 2.
the bane of Ramona Quimby
Teacher took that poor catโs head right off