The Typographic Rendering of the Local Dialect in Cyprus: Visualizing ideology in a diversified nation

Abstract

This study aims to highlight the range of typographic possibilities for written communication in a mainly verbal linguistic code, i.e. the Greek-Cypriot dialect (henceforth GCD). A selection of samples based on the findings of our previous extensive research will demonstrate the typographic diversity found across a variety of media, including local literature production, educational textbooks, the written communication of young people, online communication, subtitling, vernacular typography, and commercial signs and advertising. Finally, two new typefaces that include five original characters representing the distinct sounds of GCD will be presented. The typographic design of the proposed new characters has been tested and evaluated through action research by native speakers of GCD. The new typefaces were designed to bridge ideological considerations and contradictions related to politics and national identity, and to ameliorate practical difficulties encountered by Greek Cypriots when writing in their mother tongue.