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keyboard_arrow_downTitleAbstractKey TakeawaysFiguresIntroductionOverviewRelated Case: Meetei MayekRelated Contemporary FontsIrcam's Cursive and Lowercase ExplorationsLowercase FormationImplementation and ResultsReferencesFAQsAll TopicsArtGraphic Designdownload

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Download Free PDFTifinagh & the IRCAM, Explorations in Cursiveness and Bicamelarism in the Tifinagh scriptJuan Luis Blancovisibility

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Abstract

Tifinagh is an ancient script used in several areas of North Africa to write the Amazigh language. This dissertation discusses its context, history and development, and how they influence the making of Tifinagh digital fonts today. It looks particularly into the work of the Moroccan Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe (ircam) and the challenges associated with the design of typefaces in the context of complex ongoing standardisation processes. Specifically, it analyses the phenomena of cursiveness and bicameralism and the IRCAM’s recent exploration of the possibilities of the Tifinagh script in that direction.

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Key takeaways

AI

1. Tifinagh script, an ancient writing system, undergoes modern typographic adaptation and digital font development.
2. IRCAM has released over 25 digital fonts to standardize Tifinagh, addressing cursiveness and bicameralism.
3. Amazigh languages have 23 dialects, with 30% of Morocco's population speaking them, yet Tifinagh use remains limited.
4. The Tifinagh script was recognized as Morocco's second official language in 2011, enhancing its cultural significance.
5. Standardization of Tifinagh faces challenges due to historical influences of Arabic and Latin scripts on Amazigh identity.

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Lively motion and massive solidity are clearly opposites. O ne animates and the other remains static. They exist in a tension with one horizontal, the other vertical; one connected, the other separate. East and West Arabic calligraphy and Latin typography. These oppositions offer an opportunity not for privilege, but for an encounter without judgment or preconcept ion. The purpose of this article is not to discuss possible practical ways that Arabic and Latin typefaces can be used harmoniously toget her side by side, top to bot tom, back to front, or in any other polar relationship. Designers have found ways to select typefaces, weights and styles so that the two languages appear compati ble. They have configured layout s to allow the languages to operate individually while j uxtaposed. S trides have been made toward improving the technical aspects of non-Latin typefaces and, in particular, the problems created by the calligraphic aspects of Arabic. 1

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What key findings illustrate the role of Tifinagh in Amazigh identity?add

The study reveals that Tifinagh's revival since the 1970s signifies Amazigh identity, particularly after its official recognition in Morocco in 2011.

How did the development of Tifinagh cursive forms address writing difficulties?add

The cursive forms aimed to facilitate fluid writing and are based on ergonomic adaptations, promoting ease of use among young learners.

What methodologies were employed to analyze Tifinagh script adaptations?add

Field trips coupled with interviews and analyses of historical documents provided a comprehensive understanding of Tifinagh's sociolinguistic context.

When was Tifinagh first recognized as an official script in Morocco?add

Tifinagh was recognized as Morocco's second official language in 2011, enhancing its educational implementation.

What challenges did Tifinagh face in typography compared to Latin scripts?add

The Tifinagh script exhibits structural rigidity, leading to issues in readability that Latin scripts, which evolved with cursiveness, do not face.

Related papers

(2018). A Mosaic of Scripts: Arabic Script in Africa from a Comparative PerspectiveAnnachiara Raia

Review article Quaderni di Studi Arabi - Published by: Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino, 2018

Taught from primary school to the university level – where new courses on the globalization of the Arabic writing system have cropped up (Abdallah 2014) – the Arabic script, with all its orthographic peculiarities and multiple facets, continues to shape languages other than Arabic, their communities and specific textual traditions. However, comparative research on the Arabic script as used to write langauges other than Arabic, as well as broader topics such as digraphia and allography, are still rather scarce. This holds particularly true for Africa. One interesting exception is the book The Arabic Script in Africa. The first part of this article is dedicated to situating this book within the wider context of studies on digraphia, allography and specific local adaptations of the Arabic writing systems, while also pointing out the necessity for further research; the second part discusses the case studies presented in this book and their implications.

downloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightTendency or Trend? The Direction Towards Modern Latin-Like Arabic ScriptHisham S Alkadi

International Journal of English Linguistics, 2019

The past few decades have witnessed an aesthetic trend in the Arabic Writing System and its well-known calligraphic arts, which have exploited features of other writing systems, including Latin and Chinese scripts. Although there are great differences between almost every aspect of the Arabic and Latin scripts, this trend has blended certain characteristics of Arabic script with some features of Latin script. This study examines this trend and its experiments and transitions, from the moment it first emerged until the present day. It investigates the motivations underpinning the trend and analyzes its artistic and linguistic characteristics, in which the researcher visually analyzes all possible details and disassembles both orthographic items and calligraphic features into their basic essential scripts. The findings reveal an aesthetic and linguistic trend that is substantial and significant, based on linguistic, cultural, and sociocultural factors, including increased levels of communication, culturalism, advances in technology, transportation, migration, and globalization. Script tools and features are used to divide the main trend into three sub-trends: 1) Script switching, where scripts are interchanged at word-level; 2) Script fusion, where scripts are altered at letter-level; and 3) Faux fonts, which dissolve certain features of Arabic script to mirror Latin script. All of the techniques used to make Arabic script match Latin script have been shown to be culturally-induced and linguistically informative, rather than merely aesthetic. The findings of this study also indicate that this new phenomenon is likely to be in the early stages, with further developments expected to unfold in future.

downloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightDesigning Arabic typefaces: Between modernity and traditionScience Park Research Organization & Counselling

With the globalization of visual systems in the Middle East arose new demands in the Arabic graphic design. The imported western commercial and cultural products had created in the Arabic societies new hybrid needs and contradicted visual languages. Unfortunate, western design methodologies and models like constructivism have hardly been understood, even from educators or designers. Modern typography is usually mistaken with calligraphic talent. The controversial European styles like Arts Nouveau have been arabized from designers, who are still dealing with Arabic letterforms as a result of sacred Islamic art. It seems that the western aesthetical norms should be used en mass. Even when we identify its negative impact of the westernized Hebrew and Sanskrit scripts, many of type designers are still using matchmaking techniques in order to create Arabic typefaces out of Latin letterforms: Arabic and Latin types should look identical! (AbiFares, 2007) It is understandable to find international brands like Coca Cola, Kodak, and KFC looking for identical corporate Arabic versions. Their products need to be promoted in unified appearances with dialect language and local touch. But in case of creating a new Arabic typeface for body text, letterforms should be designed according to Arabic reading's habits. Therefore, this paper will focus on the majority of Arabic readers, and reject both of the above-mentioned methods. A new approach for designing Arabic typeface will be presented with the hypothesis that a mixture between old Arabic letterforms could create economical types without causing conflicts with global visual norms.

downloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightReview of Mumin, Meikal & Kees Versteegh, eds (2014). The Arabic script in Africa: studies in the use of a writing system (Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics, 71). Written Language and Literacy 17:2, 308-314. Amsterdam, John Benjamin.David RobertsdownloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightThe Arabic Script in Africa: Studies in the Use of a Writing System, edited by Meikal Mumin and Kees VersteeghAlbrecht Hofheinz

Sudanic Africa, 2018

downloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightArabic Typography, in: Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Brill 2013Thomas MilodownloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightInscriptions in Libyan script in the Libyan Desert and the island of Ferro : background and experiment in readingAlexander Militarev

Études et Documents Berbères

The present paper is the first part (the second part Inscriptions in Libyan Script in the Libyan Desert and the Island of Ferro: background and experiment in reading [Militarev Inscriptions, forthcoming] follows) of a substantially revised, updated and enlarged version of my paper "Tamahaq Tuaregs in the Canary Islands (Linguistic Evidence)", Aula Orientalis, N o 6, Barcelona, 1988, pp. 195-209, published thanks to my friend Prof. Gregorio del Olmo Lete. It was my first publication abroad and in English which, due to the then difficult communication between Moscow and Barcelona, a few errors slipped in, the grossest being the date of the 7 th-8 th centuries B.C., instead of A.D., of the postulated Tuareg migration to the Canary Islands. This left the whole idea up in the air (to say nothing of Tamâhaq in my original manuscript replaced, probably by the proofreader, with Tamaraq-as if misheard and recorded by an ingenuous French speaker). Anyway, this paper passed nearly unnoticed and practically played no part in the subsequent studies on the Canarian populations' ethno-lingustic history and prehistory. Most publications I've come across since then either address the genetic and archaeological aspects touching the linguistic subject only in passing or, if addressing a broader interdisciplinary perspective, are stereotyped, repetitive or highly superficial (even compared with the remarkable work by D. J. Wölfel [Wölfel] of the mid-20 th century). This is clearly demonstrated by unusually scanty articles in Wikipedia like Guanche Language and Guanches, etc. and in Glottolog on Guanche 1 with its predominant references to sources old or immaterial to the subject. As for the recent studies in Libyo-Berber ethnic, cultural and linguistic prehistory, they either do not recur to such a mighty tool of investigating the Études et Documents Berbères, 43, 2020 : pp. 131-158 1. The term Guanche is appropriate only for the aborigines and language of the island of Tenerife. According to the 17 th century author Nuñez de la Peña, 'Los naturales de Tenerife se llamaban guanchinet, que los Españoles corrompieron en guanche, que quiere decir... natural de Tenerife... guan quiere decir persona y chinet Tenerife' [Wölfel: 609]. In fact, guan should be analyzed as *wa-n 'he/this of...' EDB_43_007_militarev-12.3.21-page 131 EDB_43_007_militarev-12.3.

downloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightTypography as a way of preserving an ancient writing system: A new digital font for Maldivian Dhives Akuru scriptFernando CarodownloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_right Languages, scripts, and typefacesGerry Leonidas

Tipografica, 2006

This paper is a response to the question: "Do you consider that new technologies will enable those languages that have historically not been represented in font design, to incorporate the sounds appropriate to their tongues?" It was published in tipoGrafica no 70, 2006.

downloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightArabic script and typography: A brief historical overview (2002)Thomas Milo

Language Culture Type: International Type Design in …

downloadDownload free PDFView PDFchevron_rightkeyboard_arrow_downView more papers

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