Looking for examples of Latin and Non-Latin side-by-side communication

Martina Brillante

Hello,
I'm working on a thesis on side-by-side communication between Latin and non-Latin fonts, and I'm looking for examples in which different languages and writing styles interact with each other in order to reach a broad audience in creative ways.

I'll leave two links as an example of the material I'm collecting:
https://wemakeloveblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/the-hinglish-font-by-shirin-johari/
http://www.alexandredelvert.com/institut-du-monde-arabe

Anything from print to web design, niche projects or big and famous ones, I'll take all of your suggestions.

Thank you so much!

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Superb topic.

The examples that immediately come to mind are: Aravrit, Balkan, Hangulatin and this by Ine Beerten:

https://twitter.com/hhpapazian/status/930520856475836416

There are a few more which I'll try to remember.

BTW you might appreciate this Flickr group:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/cross-script-letterforms/

Martina Brillante

Thank you so much for your help!
I'll surely dig into this material.

You definitely made me expand my curiosity on fonts that mimic other writing styles even without being intelligible by different targets, so I'm gonna see if I can include that in my work as well, but I'm definitely super interested in things like Aravrit and Balkan!

Yannis Haralambous

Codex 80 calls them “exotypes,” I'm attaching the corresponding pages from my book. I can find more examples. I am also sending you a photograph from a Indian restaurant using a… Hebrew-like Latin font, obviously the restaurant owner thought it was Indian-like enough… We could call the MS-exotype (MS = maliciously subversive) or SRO-exotype (SRO = stupid restaurant owner)…

Yannis Haralambous

In this paper, on page 10 you can see a proposal for making Arabic script Latin-like: http://perso.telecom-bretagne.eu/yannisharalambous/data/RIDT-1998.pdf

Thomas Phinney

There's Pathum Egoddawatta's Amma, a Sinhala-Tamil hybrid. (EDIT: oops, you wanted Latin crossed with something else, while this is two non-Latin writing systems.)

• https://www.commarts.com/columns/finding-a-common-language
• http://mooniak.com/amma/

John Savard

Yannis Haralambous said:

In this paper, on page 10 you can see a proposal for making Arabic script Latin-like

I may not be Hrant, but I definitely think that Boutemene, despite the practical benefits outlined in that paper, is going exactly nowhere. A similar proposal, with less in the way of practical benefits to offer, was made for Hebrew, and despite the dim prospects for peace in the Middle East, the importance of retaining one's cultural roots is something both sides can agree on.

Thomas Phinney said:

There's Pathum Egoddawatta's Amma, a Sinhala-Tamil hybrid.

Strife between the dominant Sinhalese and the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka has made the news in past years. I doubt that a common alphabet would actually do much to address the issues underlying the conflict.

No doubt, by analogy, someone has proposed a Hebrew-Arabic hybrid script. Of course, they could also go back to the Phoenician script as well. And the Arabic language can, of course, be written with Latin characters themselves, as is done on Malta.

Of course, the Maltese use the Latin script because they were converted to Roman Catholicism, just as Poles and Croatians use the Latin script, while Serbs and Bulgarians and Russians, who were historically Orthodox, use Cyrillic. Similarly, the Arabic script is used for unrelated languages such as Urdu and Farsi - and, in the past, Turkish - because the Islamic religion spread to those places.

Given, therefore, that script systems are often heavily identified not just with national culture, but with the religious faith dominant among people of a given nationality, they're not something that can be easily changed.

Martina Brillante

John Savard said:

Given, therefore, that script systems are often heavily identified not just with national culture, but with the religious faith dominant among people of a given nationality, they're not something that can be easily changed.

I do agree with the fact that these attempts won't change the way these languages are written, but it doesn't seem to me that those projects intend to unify the writing systems they derive from or aspire to be used instead of the current ways in all contexts. 

In my research, I'm studying the interaction of different systems that require the juxtaposition of different scripts for intelligibility sake or to communicate a specific message. 

Take my example of the communication of the Institut du monde arabe in Paris, well there the intertwining of the two languages is very symbolic. 

As for conflictual instances of a unified Arabic-Hebrew script, a font like Aravrit still has a very strong communicational value in the context of a campaign for peace for instace.

I still think you raise a good point in reminding us that the evolution of the scripts we're using is grounded in history and we should remember and respect that. I just think our fascination for tradition shouldn't be an obstacle in the way of approaching typography from a new point of view.

AzizMostafa AzizAli

Well, Latin and non-Latin scripts are not necessarily compared side-by-side.
Why not make row-by-row comparison? 

Please go explore my files at https://t.me/FonJawi

Happy Exploring

Shahab Siavash

I don't know if it fits into your thesis. But this is one of my projects that I posted here on TD. This.

And more pictures and info on Behance: Here, here and here.

Martina Brillante

Shahab Siavash said:

I don't know if it fits into your thesis. But this is one of my projects that I posted here on TD. This.

And more pictures and info on Behance: Here, here and here.

oh, merci!

I find your project very fascinating! The Perso-Arabic script is the only one I sooorta know how to read besides Latin, and I see what you did there! 

I still have to figure out the structure of my thesis, but I might be able to include your project, I can see that working very well in a communication that will include the two scripts.

Shahab Siavash

Martina Brillante said:

Shahab Siavash said:

I don't know if it fits into your thesis. But this is one of my projects that I posted here on TD. This.

And more pictures and info on Behance: Here, here and here.

oh, merci!

I find your project very fascinating! The Perso-Arabic script is the only one I sooorta know how to read besides Latin, and I see what you did there! 

I still have to figure out the structure of my thesis, but I might be able to include your project, I can see that working very well in a communication that will include the two scripts.

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it If anything is needed please let me know. 

Beau Williamson

There was a great thread a few years back on Typophile about vyaz fonts. There was some crossover happening, I seem to remember. Not this (but similar):


Ah, here: http://www.typophile.com/node/56681

Martina Brillante

Beau Williamson said:

There was a great thread a few years back on Typophile about vyaz fonts. There was some crossover happening, I seem to remember. Not this (but similar):

Oooh those vyaz fonts are gorgeous-looking!
I don't quite know if they fit much with my work, cause if I'm not wrong they mainly have a decorative purpose, so I don't quite know how to link them with inclusivity and simultaneous understandability by different audiences, but you've made my evening, they are a very interesting writing form, so thank you nonetheless!