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Scotland Handwriting: Difference between revisions
Add information on Gaelic handwriting
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Scottish handwriting parallels that of England in that secretary hand was introduced in the late 15th Century. It was well established in Scotland by the mid-16th Century, and was eventually replaced by italic. | Scottish handwriting parallels that of England in that secretary hand was introduced in the late 15th Century. It was well established in Scotland by the mid-16th Century, and was eventually replaced by italic. | ||
A distinctive form of Gaelic hand can be found in some older documents, similar to the Old Irish script. This had largely disappeared by the nineteenth century. | |||
== Online Resources == | == Online Resources == | ||
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*Scottish Handwriting website: [http://www.scottishhandwriting.com Scottish Handwriting] with tutorials<br> | *Scottish Handwriting website: [http://www.scottishhandwriting.com Scottish Handwriting] with tutorials<br> | ||
*The National Archives of Scotland [http://www.nas.gov.uk/ The National Archives of Scotland] | *The National Archives of Scotland [http://www.nas.gov.uk/ The National Archives of Scotland] | ||
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Later the yogh was turned into Y. It ended up fossilised as a Z in some words and names. McKenzie and Menzies, for example would have originally been written with a yogh, i.e. McKenȝie and Menȝies. | Later the yogh was turned into Y. It ended up fossilised as a Z in some words and names. McKenzie and Menzies, for example would have originally been written with a yogh, i.e. McKenȝie and Menȝies. | ||
===Reading Gaelic=== | |||
A distinctive form of Gaelic hand can be found in some older documents, similar to the Old Irish script. This had largely disappeared by the nineteenth century. Readers of modern Scottish Gaelic (since that time) will also encounter diacritics - the grave accent over vowels, and also formerly the acute, as well as the occasional use of 7 as an ampersand. It is recommended that anyone trying to read Gaelic documents studies the language first, as the spelling system is radically different and this leads to errors. | |||
Gaelic is most likely to be encountered in bastardised form when non-speakers transcribed the names of people and places. Sometimes these are extremely corrupt. | |||
Sadly, many native speakers of Gaelic were illiterate in their own language, due to the educational system, so it was common to see them writing in English instead even when they were not fluent. Gaelic is more likely to be found in family Bibles, Psalters and the like than official documentation. | |||
=== Aids for being able to read Scottish Handwriting === | === Aids for being able to read Scottish Handwriting === | ||