# How did capital letters come to exist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 2, 2008, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-capital-letters-come-to-exist/443656 "2008-04-02T11:17:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-capital-letters-come-to-exist/443656/21 "2008-04-02T20:28:37Z")
Interesting. I knew there were different forms of the script, but I never considered that to be “cursive” as I thought cursive had to mean that the letters were connected together. Guess I was wrong about that. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-capital-letters-come-to-exist/443656/22 "2008-04-02T21:00:23Z")
In the terms used in the art of handwriting, “cursive” refers to handwritten forms in which the letters are _not_ connected together. “Script” refers to handwriting in which the letters are connected. In everyday use, both “script” and “cursive” refer to any handwritten form except the kind intended to imitate printed forms (“print,” “block letters,” etc.). ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-capital-letters-come-to-exist/443656/23 "2008-04-02T21:41:25Z")
[QUOTE=One And Only Wanderers] in Russian the capitalisation is mostly by size alteration, e.g. Йй Цц Нн apart from some odd ones such as А а [/QUOTE] I find it interesting to note that all but one of the Russian-Cyrillic letters with “different” (as opposed to merely size-variant) forms between upper and lower case are identical to Roman alphabet characters in both cases, though without the same sounds: Aa (ah), Ee (yeh), and Pp (r). While lowercase B is shown in Times New Roman Cyrillic as a small-cap B, I have seen it written as “b” (and, also carrying on the tradition, it stands for the /v/ sound, Russian B being written as Бб (the one non-Roman variant). And, as **pulykamell** notes: > [@pulykamell](#): > > And Russian cursive has some quite distinct letterforms between capitals and small letters. My first name, David, is printed in Cyrillic as Давид, but written in cursive as _Dabug_ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-capital-letters-come-to-exist/443656/24 "2008-04-02T21:52:24Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] In the terms used in the art of handwriting, “cursive” refers to handwritten forms in which the letters are _not_ connected together. “Script” refers to handwriting in which the letters are connected. In everyday use, both “script” and “cursive” refer to any handwritten form except the kind intended to imitate printed forms (“print,” “block letters,” etc.). [/QUOTE] Got a cite for that? I’m not claiming that I know you’re wrong, and I can see that there could be technical terms defined as you have defined them that differ from the everyday usage, but according to several dictionaries, my original definition is correct: > [@](#): > > [cursive](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cursive) > > 1. (of handwriting) in flowing strokes with the letters joined together. I would have thought “script” just meant any kind of handwriting, per the Latin root for “write”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-capital-letters-come-to-exist/443656/25 "2008-04-03T14:28:45Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Got a cite for that? I’m not claiming that I know you’re wrong, and I can see that there could be technical terms defined as you have defined them that differ from the everyday usage [/QUOTE] I don’t have a cite at hand. I’ve read it in several books on handwriting and typography. The closest I can come to is [this page](http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Glossary/_glossary_C.htm), which under its definition of “cursive” says that it can be joined or not, but adds: > [@](#): > > Some authors reserve the term cursive for typefaces that resemble handwriting but are not joined; they use script for joined or connecting letterforms. So, yeah, its a pretty specialized jargon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-capital-letters-come-to-exist/443656.md?page=1)