Writing Systems: Linguistic Issues

MWF 11:30-12:20

Classics 111

Instructor: Stefanie Kuzmack

e-mail: Kuzmack AT uchicago.edu

Click here for the class syllabus.

Articles placed on e-reserve may be found here.

Fonts

Certain fonts are already present on your computer, although they may not have been installed. In Windows XP, you can install them by going to Control Panel, Regional and Language Options. Click on the “Languages” tab. Under “Supplemental language support,” there are two checkboxes. One will install the fonts for East Asian languages; the other will install “complex script and right-to-left language files,” which, as Windows Help clarifies, “includes Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, the Indic languages, Thai, and Vietnamese.”

If you want to be able to type phonetic notation, I recommend the SIL fonts for the IPA . They’re widely used, and the computers of the Linguistics Department computer lab all have them installed, in case you choose to work or print something out there.

At this page you can download Aboriginal Serif, a font with the symbols for the Cherokee, Cree, and Inuktitut syllabaries, and other scripts (including the Latin alphabet). There are also downloads for several other fonts used to write other Native American languages, and some fonts for African languages. (Unfortunately, the site doesn’t provide details on the African fonts.)

This page has a font with just Cree, Inuktitut, and the Latin alphabet. If you don’t plan to use the Cherokee syllabary or the other scripts, I would recommend this one; Aboriginal Serif is a much larger font than you need.