käsialkuinen

Käsialkuinen is a Finnish term that translates to "handwritten" or "manuscript" in English. It refers to anything written by hand, as opposed to being printed or typed. This can encompass a wide range of materials, from personal letters and diaries to historical documents and early books before the advent of widespread printing.

The term implies a direct connection to the writer's physical action, distinguishing it from machine-generated text. Historically, all written communication was käsialkuinen. The development of printing technologies revolutionized the dissemination of information, but handwritten documents continued to hold significance for their personal touch, authenticity, and as primary sources for historical research.

In contemporary contexts, käsialkuinen materials are often valued for their unique character and historical importance. They can be found in archives, libraries, and private collections. The study of handwriting itself, known as paleography, is a discipline dedicated to analyzing and interpreting these handwritten documents. The term emphasizes the individual and often artistic nature of writing before it became a standardized and mechanized process.