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Making sense of old handwriting

Describing the Letters of the Russian Alphabet


When describing the various letter shapes in old handwriting, it is essential to use precise language. Such specific terminology can help to achieve consistency in letter formation and interpretation.

The following are several examples of important paleographic terms. Though this is not an all-inclusive list, the terms below are some of the most common in reference to Russian language paleography:

TermDefinitionExample

arm

a horizontal stroke that extends from, but does not cross, the body of the letter
Russian/Arm

ascender

an upward stroke rising above the body of a lowercase letter
Russian/Ascender

bar

see crossbar

This term may also describe the line sometimes placed above cursive lowercase т and below ш. This optional line helps distinguish these letters for clearer reading.

Russian/Crossbar

body

the main core of the letter; does not include ascenders or descenders
Russian/Body

bow

a circular stroke, such as the letter o or the rounded portion of the letter р
Russian/Bow

crossbar

a horizontal stroke that crosses the center of a letter
Russian/Crossbar

descender

a downward stroke dropping far below the baseline
Russian/Descender

hook

a small stroke (smaller than a full minim) indicating the beginning of certain letters, such as the Cyrillic л, м, or я (and sometimes х)
Russian/Hook

ligature

the combination of two letter shapes into one body

ѹ is sometimes written as ꙋ in the Church Slavonic headings of metrical books

lobe

see bow
Russian/Bow

majuscule

uppercase
Russian/Majuscule

minim

a single, vertical stroke between the midline and the baseline
Russian/Minim

miniscule

lowercase
Russian/Miniscule

semi-bow

a half circle, such as the stroke used to write the letter c
Russian/Semi-bow

slant

a stroke written at a slight angle, rather than being written straight up and down
Russian/Slant

stroke

a single movement of the writing utensil
Russian/Stroke

The list below covers the names of various diacritical marks used to differentiate letters in the Russian language:

TermDefinitionExample

breve

a small curved line placed above the letter to differentiate Й (“ee-kratkoye”) from И (“ee”)
Russian/Breve

two dots

two small dots placed above the letter to differentiate Ë (“yo”) from E (“ye”)
Russian/Two Dots

accent

a slanted line written above a letter to indicate stress. Accents are most often applied for the sake of language learners and are not a normal part of the written Russian language. However, you may encounter accent marks in headings for metrical books.

Ру́сский 

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    Introduction
    Paleography Introduction