Other-Letter; A hybrid of Sinhala and Tamil scripts for Sri Lanka

Type Journal Article
Title Other-Letter; A hybrid of Sinhala and Tamil scripts for Sri Lanka
Author(s)
URL http://www.typoday.in/2014/spk_papers14/pathumego-typo14.pdf
Abstract
This paper documents and discusses the development process of a new hybrid script based
on Sinhala and Tamil scripts. Sri Lanka has been in a civil war for more than 30 years. Language has
been identified as the main reason for the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and the post-war
reconciliation process has created new issues related to language. An artificial democratic
distribution where both communities encounter a sense of otherness has been created with
he resettlement of the Sinhalese and Tamil communities in the war-affected areas. Signage
and street typography is the spaces where these people encounter the 'other' language. The task
was to develop a typographic solution to dissolve the language barrier through these spaces itself. A
single script, writing system and a typeface were developed, based on Sinhala and Tamil, which can
be used to write and read in both languages. In addition to the development process of the project,
this paper briefly discusses the socio-political background, which raised the opportunity for such
script.

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