Capital Eng

scannerlicker

Hey, everyone!

I'm a bit confused with the formal aspects of the capital Eng (U+014A). So it has two forms, one based on the lowercase n, the other one on the uppercase N.

In previous typefaces, I'd solve this based on contrast: the j-like hook doesn't work very well with the N version with a high contrast, although it's still doable.

But on further reading, the preference of shape for one or the other seems to be cultural (according to wiki, Sami-speaking cultures prefer the the N-form, while African languages that use the Eng prefer a n-form (or rotated G, in some cases).

So, two questions: should these flavours be localized, or is any one of these forms intelligible?

Thank you in advance!

André G. Isaak

If you plan on supporting African languages, it should definitely be localized.

scannerlicker

André G. Isaak said:

If you plan on supporting African languages, it should definitely be localized.

But since there are a lot less Sami languages than the rest, shouldn't the non-Sami be default? 

Kent Lew

If a font does indeed provide for African languages, then I think it does makes sense to have the capital “nj” form as the default, and localize for the relevant Sami languages.

But to adequately cover African languages, one needs several less common characters — such as ɓɗɖɲƴ, just to show a few.

Extended Latin character sets that cover the majority of European languages will easily cover three of the four Latin-using Sami languages with the simple inclusion of ŋ. If the char set is primarily aimed at that standard target, then I think it makes sense to have the “NJ” form as the default.

If you want to provide a capital “nj” form for those few African languages that can get by with just the ŋ and not the rest of the pan-African set, I would be more inclined to make it the alternate.

Ray Larabie

But since there are a lot less Sami languages than the rest, shouldn't the non-Sami be default?

I really think so. I looked into it and found some Sámi websites which used fonts using the nj form. There aren't many but one of them even had Futura embedded for headlines which had the nj form...someone went out of their way to include it?

Sámi people have probably been exposed to 30 years of Arial and other fonts which use that form. Unless there's a current survey of the speakers of these endangered languages proving that they're truly revolted by the nj form, I'm going to assume they're not too fussed. And perhaps some of them even prefer the nj form.

But to adequately cover African languages, one needs several less common characters — such as ɓɗɖɲƴ, just to show a few.

It's true, that more characters can be added to support Latin-based African alphabets. The Pan-Nigerian alphabet probably isn't used in day-to-day life and doesn't affect the usefulness of Ŋ.

Pan Nigerian alphabet thread

Igor Freiberger

A complete support for African languages should consider three variations for Eng (plus the European one):



To take the first variant as the default is a logical idea. I will adopt this criteria.
The two documents attached provide a valuable guidance to African localizations.

James Puckett

.

Ray Larabie

@Igor Freiberger
Very interesting. It's too bad africanlocalisation.net is gone, I'd like to learn more.