Funktionalisierte Variation in Handschriften

In contrast to printed letters, handwritten texts show a larger amount of variation regarding letter shape and letter contact. This variation though might not be totally random but could follow a certain grammatical or structural function. By analysing a corpus of 10.117 graphs written by four writers, this paper explores which structures and which functions correlate. More precisely, it will be shown that the shape of certain letters might indicate syllabic, morphologic od prosodic structures. In addition, it will be shown that handwritten texts present the words’ structure better than printed texts could do. Overall, this paper points out how handwritten scripts show the graphematic principles known from printing even better than printed texts do.