Why does the radical 𠂇 have different stroke orders for 右 and 左?

The title says all. I never really understood why these two kanjis, while having identical radical (𠂇), have different stroke orders for said radical. Can someone kindly give a brief explanation on this?

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It’s because the original characters had different shapes. This page illustrates it nicely.

I’m also reading that there’s no difference in stroke order between them in Chinese, interestingly. But I don’t know any Chinese so maybe one of the Chinese speakers here could confirm that :smile:

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Well, my thought is that swapping the strokes in the radical ensures that stroke directions alternate directions for both kanji. 右 = down, right, down, right (then down), right. 左 = right, down, right, down, right. I’ve got no proof that that’s actually the reasoning, though. 有 and 友 are the same - 月 starts with the down stroke, and the radical goes down then right, whereas 又 starts with the right stroke, and the radical goes right then down.

Interestingly, 右 used to be mirrored, so the radical was actually on the right, so it made more sense to write the strokes in that order.

(Also, in Chinese, the stroke order is the same for both - horizontal stroke first.)

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That’s what I thought (and maybe heard somewhere? :thinking:) as well!
Also it feels quite natural for me when writing them :woman_shrugging:

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