Handwriting Accents to Reveal Cultural Identity of Author

Abstract

Handwriting is a neuro-muscular phenomenon, which is influenced by gender, age, newlineethnicity, handedness, the system of handwriting learned, subject matter (content), newlinewriting protocol (written from memory, dictated, or copied out), writing instrument newline(pen and paper), changes in the handwriting of an individual over time, etc. In other newlinewords, one can say that handwriting is an acquired skill, which is greatly influenced by newlinethe ethnicity and the system of handwriting learned. Handwriting relates the cognitive newlineaspects of the brain with the muscular movements. Thus, it becomes likely that a certain newlinedegree of commonness exists in the handwriting features of the people of the same newlinepopulation group. Few researches had been conducted in this aspect to identify the newlineethnic origin of author via some distinctive characteristics of their handwriting, which newlinereflects their ethnic origin. Out of these works, a couple of studies took quantitative newlineapproach to statistically examine the observed handwriting characteristics. The newlinepredictions of this work will help the forensic fraternity in identifying the authors of newlineanonymous writings. Also, the work will help the anthropological researchers in newlineidentifying the ethnic origin of writer based on their ethno-linguistic handwriting newlinefeatures. newlineWe approach this problem using multilingual writers who can also write in English. We newlinehave focused our work in distinguishing six very distinctive ethno-linguistic groups, to newlinedouble check the results obtained. The further comparison of findings is done with the newlinefindings of the data obtained from control population. Each set of group contains 50 newline