Graphetics is a branch of

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

concerned with the analysis of the physical properties of shapes used in

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

. It is an etic study, meaning that it has an outsider's perspective and is not concerned with any particular writing system. It is contrasted with the related

emic In anthropology, folkloristics, and the social and behavioral sciences, emic () and etic () refer to two kinds of field research done and viewpoints obtained. The "emic" approach is an insider's perspective, which looks at the beliefs, values, ...

field of

graphemics Graphemics or graphematics is the linguistic study of writing systems and their basic components, i.e. graphemes. At the beginning of the development of this area of linguistics, Ignace Gelb coined the term '' grammatology'' for this discipline; ...

, the study of the relation between different shapes in particular writing systems. Graphetics is analogous to

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

; graphetics is to the study of writing as phonetics is to the study of

spoken language A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds or (depending on one's definition) manual gestures, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract in contrast with a si ...

. As such, it can be divided into two areas, ''visual graphetics'' and ''mechanical graphetics'', which are analogous to auditory and articulatory phonetics, respectively. Both

printed Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...

and handwritten language can be the subject of graphetic study.

References

Grammatology {{Ling-stub