Did the two descend from one another?
While looking into typography history I came across the Egyptian Demotic script, this reminded me or the Arabic script and I couldn't help but wonder if they was a link?
After researching many sites it does seem to be in agreeance that why they look similar in fact they is no real link between the two language. The only thing that seems to make sense in my own mind is the natural evolution theory (see below)
From the site aqora
Demotic evolved from Hieratic. Hieratic is closely related to hieroglyphs. (Hieratic looks like a simplified version of hieroglyphs. But Hieratic and hieroglyphs appear almost fully formed at around the same time, so it's hard to say that that is the case.) I believe all of those Egyptian writing systems died out by the 5th century AD, before the development of the modern Arabic alphabet.
They do have other things in common though. Both are written from right to left. Both are cursive, with lots of ligatures, meant to be written smoothly and quickly. Both were traditionally written in ink with a reed pen. All of these things influence how letters look, and would tend to make different systems written in similar ways look similar too. If you look at charts of the evolution of various scripts, you'll find that big changes in the appearance of letters happen when writing materials change. Convergent evolution affects writing systems too. It's pretty fascinating.
In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.
The result was an exclusive new typeface developed for the Saudi Telecom, consisting of 4 weights both in Arabic and Latin. Both scripts were designed to match each other and use the same visual characteristics, without risking the legibility and authenticity of each script. Particular focus was placed on insuring that both the Arabic and Latin fonts read at a same visual size.
http://www.atrissi.com this site is very interesting and the designer behind it all has many awards.
While looking into typography history I came across the Egyptian Demotic script, this reminded me or the Arabic script and I couldn't help but wonder if they was a link?
 |
| demotic script |
| arabic script |
After researching many sites it does seem to be in agreeance that why they look similar in fact they is no real link between the two language. The only thing that seems to make sense in my own mind is the natural evolution theory (see below)
From the site aqora
Demotic evolved from Hieratic. Hieratic is closely related to hieroglyphs. (Hieratic looks like a simplified version of hieroglyphs. But Hieratic and hieroglyphs appear almost fully formed at around the same time, so it's hard to say that that is the case.) I believe all of those Egyptian writing systems died out by the 5th century AD, before the development of the modern Arabic alphabet.
They do have other things in common though. Both are written from right to left. Both are cursive, with lots of ligatures, meant to be written smoothly and quickly. Both were traditionally written in ink with a reed pen. All of these things influence how letters look, and would tend to make different systems written in similar ways look similar too. If you look at charts of the evolution of various scripts, you'll find that big changes in the appearance of letters happen when writing materials change. Convergent evolution affects writing systems too. It's pretty fascinating.
In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.
While all this may not be relevant to my brief as such it is something that got me asking questions enough to want answers. I will print this page into my book as well as the work I've already done on modern day Arabic font types...
Tarek Atrissi Design - At Tarek Atrissi Design, our passion for letters has translated into several high profile projects with a strong typographic flavour. Particularly in the field of Arabic Typography, where we have left a significant fingerprint on the typographic landscape in the Middle East.
STC Telecom Custom Typeface Design being of interest to me as a bilingual typeface!
The result was an exclusive new typeface developed for the Saudi Telecom, consisting of 4 weights both in Arabic and Latin. Both scripts were designed to match each other and use the same visual characteristics, without risking the legibility and authenticity of each script. Particular focus was placed on insuring that both the Arabic and Latin fonts read at a same visual size.
http://www.atrissi.com this site is very interesting and the designer behind it all has many awards.
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