NCJ Number
186108
Journal
International Journal of Forensic Document Examiners Volume: 5 Dated: December/January 1999 Pages: 424-429
Date Published
1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper presents case examples of methods for examining and comparing unfamiliar handwritten scripts in a language that uses the Roman alphabet, a language with similarities to the Roman alphabet, and a language in an alphabet far removed from the Roman alphabet.
Abstract
If a document examiner whose native language is English is examining writings in another language that uses the Roman alphabet, his difficulties will be increased. Although the examiner can assume the letter formations are as variable as in English, he may have difficulty in recognizing certain letters if he cannot recognize the words from the context. In such a case, a typewritten transcript of the writings prepared by a person conversant with the language will be helpful and sufficient to solve this problem. If the examiner must analyze writings in a Cyrillic script, such as Russian or Serbo-Croat, where some letters are similar to Roman letters but others are very different, a typed or block capital transliteration of the writings is essential. With scripts that are far removed from familiar Roman writing, such as Arabic, the problems of the document examiner are much greater. A document examiner without any knowledge of the language of the script must compare like with like, which requires knowing what each letter or figure is and where each letter occurs. He must be aware of what variations in the form of a letter can occur in the writings of different persons and which forms are common and less common or rare. When the examiner has established where all the various letters occur in the writings he is examining and how these letters could be expected to differ among different writers, he can then apply the scientific principles of observation and deduction with which he is familiar. 7 figures