Origin Of "looped" Lower Case "t"

[Leroy83]

Looking for a cursive script to adopt I've tried several, but "Mills Modern Business Penmanship" seems to come the most natural to me. Instead of drawing the letters, I was almost instantly actually writing them. However, I decided to keep the "open p" and "looped t" I was taught in school.

 

This led me to research these variations. The "open p" is common in France and the Netherlands and seems to come from copperplate. But I've had less success finding the origins of the "looped t" that I was taught in shool (I'm 31, I think it's still pretty common here in the Netherlands). Where does it come from? How old is it?

 

"Looped t" in "regelmatig" (not my handwriting):

 

http://www.webklik.nl/user_files/2011_06/273289/REGELMATIG_GRIJS.jpg

 

I'm guessing it's taught to children because not crossing your t's means moving on more quickly, thus better keeping their train of thought.

[lahlahlaw]

Thanks for sharing! Although I have no idea where it came from, I will try to adopt it into my own handwriting. I dislike pausing to cross Ts, this might help..

[Darcy1978]

Hi Leroy - and welcome to the forum! - interesting point. I was taught the looped t as well, in the 80s in primary school. One teacher (in group 7 - for those who know what that is) viciously tries to un-teach the looped t, which to his mind was dreadfully old fashioned. I do like to write words with one or more t's in them and leaving the horizontal lines till the end, and then making one big line through all the ts.

[Leroy83]

Thanks for sharing! Although I have no idea where it came from, I will try to adopt it into my own handwriting. I dislike pausing to cross Ts, this might help..

 

Me too, the main reason I'll keep using it. (I'd post my own handwriting but I broke my smartphone...)

 

 

Hi Leroy - and welcome to the forum! - interesting point. I was taught the looped t as well, in the 80s in primary school. One teacher (in group 7 - for those who know what that is) viciously tries to un-teach the looped t, which to his mind was dreadfully old fashioned. I do like to write words with one or more t's in them and leaving the horizontal lines till the end, and then making one big line through all the ts.

 

Interesting. As a kid I moved a lot throughout the country and we'd (in basisschool) always learn it this way. Maybe it's old fasioned, but it's practical.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Leroy83

[Seele]

It definitely does not interrupt the flow as the "t" would not need to be crossed later. The photographic equipment manufacturer Voigtländer's logo has it too, even though the loop is not obvious:

 

http://www.jnoir.eu/img/voigtlander-logo.jpg

[DaveBj]

I cross my t's as I write them, without lifting the pen, but most of the time they don't look looped, as in the OP's example. I don't leave my p's open, however.

 

Here's an example of my normal handwriting:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/265025-pocket-notebook-find-in-walmart/

[bokchoy]

There are many similar t's (though not noticeably looped) in this sample of business script:

 

http://www.zanerian.com/Bailey.html

[DaveBj]

There are many similar t's (though not noticeably looped) in this sample of business script:

 

http://www.zanerian.com/Bailey.html

Yeah, I wrote my t's like that for a while in 5th and/or 6th grade, where you make the vertical stroke, come back up it (without crossing it), and then carry on. That's similar to what I do now, only I actually make a cross stroke and carry on. I don't know why I quit doing that; either I got tired of it, or my teachers "encouraged" me to quit. I also at that age went through a phase where I was making the up-stroke of my lower-case p's as tall as the other tall letters.

 

On the subject of the open p's in English, I have a BA in Russian, and the lower-case handwritten r in Russian looks like an English open p. There are a few Russian handwriting habits that made the crossover into my English handwriting, but that was not one of them. I guess the drills from grade school are just too set in stone

[bokchoy]

Yeah, I wrote my t's like that for a while in 5th and/or 6th grade, where you make the vertical stroke, come back up it (without crossing it), and then carry on. That's similar to what I do now, only I actually make a cross stroke and carry on. I don't know why I quit doing that; either I got tired of it, or my teachers "encouraged" me to quit. I also at that age went through a phase where I was making the up-stroke of my lower-case p's as tall as the other tall letters.

 

On the subject of the open p's in English, I have a BA in Russian, and the lower-case handwritten r in Russian looks like an English open p. There are a few Russian handwriting habits that made the crossover into my English handwriting, but that was not one of them. I guess the drills from grade school are just too set in stone

 

I've recently incorporated the unlooped single-stroke 't' into my cursive handwriting.

 

Why the unlooped version? I was taught two different A's by two different people and one of them looks exactly like the looped 't'.

 

This is from my collection of regional and/or historical school cursive variants (with my comments). I was taught the first two A's. Every time I see a looped 't', my mind thinks it is an 'A'

Edited August 5, 2014 by bokchoy

[bokchoy]

I'm not an expert, but I've seen the looped 't' in German handwriting and it also appears in pre-WWII German scripts like Sütterlin.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=S%C3%BCtterlin

[pmhudepo]

Can't help you with the origin of the "looped t". I know I've searched for information on handwriting in Dutch schools before, but didn't find much except for the site of Malmberg, a Dutch publisher of school books.

 

I do remember learning this "looped t" in primary school, in my days called "lagere school". We all had difficulty with the little kink in the upstroke. If I remember correctly, it was something between a curve and a proper angle. Took us ages to get it right. And then there were "r" and "z" to give us more trouble. Here's my attempt at reproducing that writing. I'm sure I've got lots of details wrong.

 

 

Ahh, fond memories of those early years in school :-)

[stilllo]

I use this when writing in German, but the angle up to the top of the t doesn't form a sharp angle, it's curved so that it falls more in line with the descender of the t itself. Looks very clean.