Being derived directly from minuscule /e, the sans serif Schwas, upper and lower case, almost design themselves, but the serifed versions are problematic. Lacking much in the way of precedent, I’ve explored a variety of strategies, which I’d like to share for discussion. I’d be interested in hearing from any native Azeri speaker or people familiar with reading that or other languages which use the character—and in seeing how other type drawers have designed it.
(The type specimens feature the name of Azerbaijan’s president, in caps and U&lc.)
1. Scaled and rotated minuscule /e. Font: Pratt Display, a newspaper face.
The capital /Ə looks perfect in the U&lc name, echoing the /e, but in all caps does it not perhaps looks a little out of place, as if it has strayed from a unicase font? This is the nature of the beast: should one accommodate the majuscule or the minuscule style for the cap /Ə, or try to compromise?
2. Divergent majuscule and minuscule style. Font: Goodchild, a book ‘Jenson’.
The capital /Ə has a serif, like a flipped /C, and its crossbar aligns with that of /E etc. The lower case /ə is a rotated /e, but it doesn’t look quite right when its large open counter is compared with that of /a, which presumably has the correct ductus; perhaps I should have tweaked it a bit. Is the different angle of cap/lc crossbars a bit much, or cool?
3. Divergent majuscule and minuscule style. Font: Bodoni Egyptian.
The same tack as 2, but the quite different ductus of /a and /ə makes for a better effect, and the horizontal crossbar of /e and /ə is not as disruptive as Goodchild’s Venetian /e and /ə.
4. Cap style applied to both cases. Font: Scotch Modern text cut.
(The opposite strategy to 1.) I determined that the lower case form looked too odd as a cap, so although based on a rotated /C, I added a serif. Then I made the lower case echo this, which is consistent with /S to /s; but in retrospect, I wonder.
5. Divergent majuscule and minuscule style. Font: Richler, a book face.
Here the similar ‘superelipse’ form of /Ə and /ə serves to harmonize the schwas, despite /Ə having a centred crossbar, and a serif, unlike /ə. However, for the same reason, /a and /ə may be too similar in body text.
6. Divergent majuscule and minuscule style. Font: Buslingthorpe, a tiny-x’d transitional.
The difference in angle of stress between the cases makes radically different treatments of the schwas appropriate. This should apply to more normally proportioned transitional styles. The transitional style of Latin typeface seems well suited to Azerbaijani.
7. Fanciful. Font: Fontesque.
With the exception of #1, I’ve adapted the upper case /Ə to cap style rather than upsizing the /ə. It’s not necessarily the best method, but it’s what I’ve gravitated towards up to now.
Comments
I find that however you finish it off, starting from a scaled up l/c schwa nearly always makes a cap that looks too wide. (Still unsure whether that’s because my brain can’t unsee it’s lowercase-e-ness and thus judges the whole thing too big.)
By quick check of a few typefaces at hand seems that—for lowercase—those that are "oblique" keep the bar horizontal, while those who have "true" italics make the curl. The same treatment that e gets. However, if the later, lowercase schwa looks even more like the italic double storey a.
On the other side, for caps seems there is no consensus, and that true italics sometimes keep the horizontal as well.
What people here think about this?
On the other hand, Western readers of Futura etc. manage OK with its similarity between /a and /o, so, absent opinion from native Azeri typographers and readers, we’re rather working in the dark.
But perhaps disambiguation is more important for Azeri readers, as they have had to contend with both Cyrillic and Latin scripts, not to mention Arabic, so they may need all the help they can get in deciphering typography.
Is the following true? If you're using the ə at 01DD (Latin Extended B ) you also need to include it at 0259 (IPA Extensions). Azerbaijani text usually uses the 0259 encoding.
U+01DD and U+0259 have different case mappings. U+0259 maps to the uppercase Ə U+018F , which is why it is used for Azeri. U+01DD is an African character which maps to the uppercase Ǝ U+018E.