ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some orthographic and linguistic features found in personal letters written in Gujarati that help to single out the writer. Formal letters are quite rigid in following conventions and prescriptive standards with respect to general format, fixed expressions, and salutations. Personal correspondence, however, is less observant of such regulations in other aspects of phrasing and even in the act of writing. More often than not these are speedy and spontaneous compositions which are revealing sources for distinguishing stylistic attributes of the author. Unlike typed or printed documents, handwritten materials additionally embody orthographic peculiarities of their writers. The data have been chosen for these reasons. Also provided is information about differentiating traits from a language typologically different from English and with a nonalphabetic writing system; it also delves into the type of literacy among a majority that is notably different in level and restricted in function.
