Re: Why did Boustrophedon Disappear?
| From: | David McCann <david@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 22:49 |
|---|
On Tue, 2009-03-30 at 07:15 +0100, R A Brown wrote:
> I'm told that right-handed people write Arabic in columns down the page
> which, when the page is turned 90 degrees clockwise gives the standard
> left-to-right cursive script. I don't know how true that is.
It doesn't look as if anyone else here knows either, but it seems to
have been standard practice for Aramaic, Sogdian, and Uighur writers in
the Middle Ages. The Mongols, of course, don't turn the page round any
more, so the script is now vertical.
The wear on a reed pen would probably make it more likely to stick when
moving in a different direction (that is certainly the case with a
quill), so that would be a factor in favour of a consistent direction.
Reply