The description of the small letters, or minuscules, of the
secretary alphabet will be facilitated if we make our own
Roman written letters the basis of our descriptions.

Our script a is made up essentially of two parts or elements:
a small oval (o), the body of the letter, followed immediately

by the lower half of a larger oval (No. 1). The semioval does
not merely follow the oval immediately; it is connected with it
-- the down stroke of the semioval overlapping in part of its
course the right side of the oval. These constituents of the
letter, and of the corresponding parts of other letters, may be
called the oval, or the "body," and the semioval.

According to the textbooks the oval should be preceded by
an ascending oblique stroke or by a short curved horizontal

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