I’m pretty sure you were able to read at least a part of that, if not even everything. Y_ur t_xt may look somet_ng lik_ this, def_n_tely far fr_m being perf_c_ or done. If you can’t read a letter within a word, replace that letter with a single underscore (_), then continue with the rest of the word. If you can’t decipher a word or a part of a word, replace it with several underscores (_), then continue with the next word. It’s important that you do this in your own handwriting or a computer font you are used to. Sit down with your document and write down every word and every letter that you actually can decipher. Even though these are all computer fonts and not handwritten by a person, they’ll provide a good indication of how much letters can change without losing their characteristics. Pick one letter and compare all 10 versions of it to see the similarities and characteristics that all 10 of the letter’s versions share. Sample sheet for Kurrent and Suetterlin type letters. Neue Rudelskopf verbunden (Peter Wiegel).Greifswalder Deutsche Schrift (Peter Wiegel).18th Century Kurrent Start (Peter Wiegel).The fonts I used for this sample sheet are: Click on the picture to get a PDF version of the whole sample sheet. I created a sample sheet for you with various Kurrent and Sütterlin type scripts (downloaded for free under Creative Commons 0 licence, mostly from Peter Wiegel’s website, but also one by R. G. Arens). Lowercase “long s” and “round s” as well as capital S.Looks VERY much like a capital B, imho confusing and ugly…. EsZett:ß (traditionally only lower case, though in June 2017 an upper case ß was added to the official modern German alphabet.Umlaut: ä, ö, ü (both lower and upper case).Additionally to the a-z letters (both lower and upper case) the old German alphabet has a few more letters. While you are used to 26 letters in an alphabet this is only partially true for the old German scripts. Lots of swirls and squiggles, nice to look at, but nasty to recognize initial letters at least. If you have to decipher and transcribe old German sales or testimentary contracts you’ll face “Kanzleischrift” (= chancellery script). More decorative versions of Kurrent often were used in chancelleries for official documents and contracts. Usually Kurrent is a cursive font, more or less, mostly depending on the writer while Sütterlin is mostly upright. Kurrent is the older German handwriting type of the three already mentioned main old German scripts, Sütterlin the younger. Old German scripts: Kurrent and Sütterlin type In a final step I’ll show you the snares and traps of possible letter mix-ups. I’ll show you my system of how to split the letters into different letter groups to narrow down the options in case you can’t identify a letter right away. Let’s now have a closer look at each of them and learn about the letters. Of course there are more but the majority of those either are variations of the previously mentioned three scripts – or they go back into a time where we rarely find any documents about our ancestors – or they weren’t used in Germanic areas. In my previous posting I explained details about and differences between the main three old German scripts: the older handwriting script Kurrent, the newer handwriting script Sütterlin and the print script Fraktur.
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