THE WEST AFRICAN FOREST OF SYMBOLS
REFLECTIONS ON THE REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY WRITING SYSTEMS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.82068/pgjournal.2025.22.41.04Keywords:
Indigenous Languages, Written System, Unicode, Multiscript TypographyAbstract
Adopting an integrated vision of writing means not only working for the representation of minority writing systems outside and within Unicode encoding, but also rethinking the approaches and methodologies of typographic design. This article offers a synthesis of the debate on the definition of "writing," tracing the approaches and paradigm shifts. It argues that prevalent phonocentric models often fail to account for the symbolic and cultural complexity of African writing traditions, a limitation that resurfaces in Unicode encoding. Developed within the Missing Scripts research program, the following contribution presents the case of the Masaba script from Mali. The repertoire of signs is examined by applying methods that calculate complexity and reconstruct the internal logic of the system, an analysis that guides the design of the first digital typeface for Masaba.
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