# Do we write and read left to right because of dominant right-handedness? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-write-and-read-left-to-right-because-of-dominant-right-handedness/368021 "2006-08-09T16:44:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-write-and-read-left-to-right-because-of-dominant-right-handedness/368021/21 "2006-08-10T08:36:21Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] The Romans wrote with little regard to line breaks and spaces, sometimes cutting of words in the middle because they ran out of room and had to go to the next line. It carried on for quite a few centuries. For example, “Now is the time for every man to come to the aid of his country,” might be rendered thusly: NOWISTHETIMEFOR EVERYMANTOCOMET OTHEAIDOFHISCOU NTRY. . . . only they’d probably arrange it so there wasn’t so much blank space at the end. [/QUOTE] And before that, the Greeks would write one line left-to-right, the next line right-to-left, the next line left-to-right, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-write-and-read-left-to-right-because-of-dominant-right-handedness/368021/22 "2006-08-10T21:42:16Z")
[QUOTE=Quercus] It is most probably an effect rather than cause of overall left-to-right order, but it strikes me that many roman alphabet letters are more easily written starting at the left and moving right. R, r, P, B, D, E, e, F, f, K,k, maybe C and c, and probably others. [/QUOTE] I have seen pictures of ancient Roman texts - I’m almost positive they were Roman - in which the text was boustrophedonic, and further, the characters written towards the left were indeed the mirror inverses of the characters written left to right. Which suggests that when the Romans gave up on boustrophedonic writing (which, as mentioned, they inherited from the Greeks (through the Etruscans)), it did indeed cause the characters to be oriented as you describe. So I think that, indeed, the relative ease of writing these characters compared to how they would be if they were backwards is the result of the direction we write in. (I may have some historical facts wrong above, since I sometimes forget details.) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-write-and-read-left-to-right-because-of-dominant-right-handedness/368021/23 "2006-08-11T04:02:01Z")
[QUOTE=Excalibre] the text was boustrophedonic, [/QUOTE] I brought normal work to a stop at my community college library with a simple question relating to this term. “Boustrophedonic is the ox-plow style of writing (one line right-to-left, next left-to-right), but what is the techical term for left-to-right or right-to-left writing?” Never did find out. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-write-and-read-left-to-right-because-of-dominant-right-handedness/368021/24 "2006-08-11T04:42:51Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] And before that, the Greeks would write one line left-to-right, the next line right-to-left, the next line left-to-right, and so on. [/QUOTE] As mentioned in posts 5, 7, 15, 16, 17 and 18. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-write-and-read-left-to-right-because-of-dominant-right-handedness/368021/25 "2006-08-11T04:45:31Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] Boustrophedonic is the ox-plow style of writing (one line right-to-left, next left-to-right), but what is the techical term for left-to-right or right-to-left writing? [/QUOTE] Aboustrophedonic? ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2006, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-write-and-read-left-to-right-because-of-dominant-right-handedness/368021/26 "2006-08-11T08:35:59Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > And before that, the Greeks would write one line left-to-right, the next line right-to-left, the next line left-to-right, and so on. [QUOTE=Askance] As mentioned in posts 5, 7, 15, 16, 17 and 18. [/QUOTE] Ah, it’s a 1920’s style “of writing”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-write-and-read-left-to-right-because-of-dominant-right-handedness/368021.md?page=1)