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Right-handed Arabic writers have very much the same problems as left-handed latin writers. That Arabic is written left to right seems to come from chisel based
by ascar 6y ago
Right-handed Arabic writers have very much the same problems as left-handed latin writers. That Arabic is written left to right seems to come from chisel based writing.
> Although it is hard to pinpoint why Arabic is sinistroverse, it has been theorized that before the papermaking process emerged in China, the Arabs used chisels to engrave the ideas and concepts they wished to manifest on stones. Due to its longevity, stone was preferred over leaves, skin, bones and shells. Considering most of the “writers” [and individuals in general] were right-handed, they would use their right hand to hold [and carve with] the chisel and the left hand to hold a hammer. Such direction is more natural because it involves an outward motion and is, therefore, easier to perform from a motor point of view. A left-to-right motion would have been counterintuitive, especially with the risk of personal injury involved.[1]
However, as another comment mentioned there are techniques that solve the smearing and awkward hand-position by rotating the paper. I would not be surprised if those are taught more widely for Arabic as 90% instead of 10% of writers face that problem.
[1] https://www.pangeanic.com/knowledge_center/arabic-right-to-left/# https://www.pangeanic.com/knowledge_center/arabic-right-to-l...
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y agoI'm right-handed and I would certainly hold the hammer in the right hand.
- vagrantJin 6y agoI was also a bit confused by this. For fine motor control, right handers will use the right hand, not the left. The hypothesis is garbage.
- gwd 6y agoI would think that the "fine motor control" would be in holding the chisel, not the hammer. But you find the same pattern for violin or guitar -- "right-handed" playing has the right hand holding the bow or strumming, while the left hand does the fingerings. The fingering is absolutely more difficult; but I think (from my own experience) the main thing is which hand is in control: The bow and the strumming causes the sound to come out, so that's what the right hand wants to do. That's how I feel about using a chisel too.
- Andrew_nenakhov 6y agoYou need to put chisel in a right place, than strike it with a hammer. So once the chisel is in place, the only thing the left hand does is holding chisel, which is not hard at all. Think of it as a nail: if you need to hammer in a nail in exactly the right place, you put the nail into exact position holding it with a left hand, then strike it with force using hammer in the right hand. And if you ever did this you know that the tricky part is hitting the nail the right way, so you don't bend it.
- ascar 6y agoYou two are right. Reading it again I think I corrected the mixed up hands in my head. While they say the chisel is in the right and the hammer in the left, everything else depicted paints the opposite picture in my head. If you hold the hammer in the right and the chisel in the left, you swing the hammer from the right to the left with the chisel tilted to the right. Thus the natural writing direction (outward from the swing) would be right to left. Swinging your hammer from the right and moving to the left would mean writing in the opposite direction of the force used to write single letters. So, if the hammer is in the right hand and chisel in the left means a right-to-left motion and makes a left-to-right motion counterintuitive.
- adrian_b 6y agoThe writing direction in Arabic, Hebrew and other Semitic writing systems has been inherited from the Egyptian. So any hypothesis about the origin of the right-to-left direction must discuss only how the tools were used for the Egyptian hieratic (written with brushes) and hieroglyphic (carved with chisels) writing systems. Maybe it was easier to carve hieroglyphs in that direction, but I am not aware of anyone testing this hypothesis in practice.