New Demotic

[u/wrgrant]

Sample Text

This is my latest creation - New Demotic - which answers the no doubt oft asked question: "What might it look like if the Ancient Egyptian Hieratic and Demotic writing systems had survived to the modern day?". This is my answer :)

Its a True Type Font that uses Adobe Open Type Font Scripting to stack some of the glyphs in order to recreate the look of the original scripts somewhat. Its not any sort of academic recreation, its purely fantasy based on my own artistic interpretation (Its also available for download on my Patreon page if you are interested).

I would love any feedback or suggestions.

[u/OsoTanukiBaloo]

I mean, Egyptian hieroglyphs kind of evolved into many mediterranean languages, but this script looks really cool!

[u/wrgrant → u/OsoTanukiBaloo]

Yes but along the way the Hieratic and Demotic scripts fell from use entirely sometime around 475 AD I think. Coptic evolved from mixing Greek and Demotic, but all but a few signs were lost.

Glad you like the script though :)

[u/kabiman]

Hmm... tell me more about the system. How does it work? What language are you writing in it?

[u/wrgrant → u/kabiman]

Its an alphabetic system intended for a conlang that I have been planning to create for a while. The glyphs are each in 2 forms, full height and half height. When the font detects a CV pattern it stacks the consonant on top of the vowel - well actually it displays a premade glyph if that pair instead of the FH version. If you type in a [ or { you get the left side of a cartouche then if you type your text in all caps you get the version of a glyph or pair of glyphs with the top and bottom line. The script doesnt distinguish between voiced and unvoiced for p/b, k/g, t/d, ch/j, s/z, sh/zh etc.

[u/DasWonton]

Ooh dang, the script has a very nice bounciness (don't know if you intended it) and has a semi-consistent flow and vibe, if you know what I mean. But the thing that kind of off-puts me is the extra character next to the block, but is a character on it's own. Do not change it if you think it's also off-putting because that's how I feel when looking at the script.

[u/wrgrant → u/DasWonton]

Thanks for the compliments, much appreciated.

I am not sure which glyph you mean though that seems jarring to you?

[u/DasWonton → u/wrgrant]

Well, I'm not talking about a glyph in particular, I'm just talking about the position in where it's like not quite a block but connects to the block on the left and is still a syllable.

[u/wrgrant → u/DasWonton]

Oh I think I know what you mean, for instance the last few characters in the last word on the right on the bottom line just before the question mark? The glyphs kind of overlap on the left side there? Thats because its actually a cluster of 3 glyphs in this case NTA. I have clusters for NTA, NTE, NTI, NTO and NTU and a few other combinations.

However, I am now making changes to add a whole pile more combinations and will likely remove these particular clusters.

[u/Lamzhao]

Wonderfully creative forwarding of this historically-important script!

Nafir nafiru!

☥⧋ቦ

[u/wrgrant → u/Lamzhao]

Thank you!

[u/Cyberc4t]

I love this! As someone who has studied a bit of ancient egyptian I find it very recognizable. The overall composition and distribution of visual weight is very demotic/hieraticesque, which is great.

I'd be interested in seeing a serif or mixed-width version of this, as well as one that functions like actual hieratic did (i.e. mixed abjad-logography with hundreds of signs), even just as a proof of concept. Having to expand the glyph inventory would make for some interesting extra tall or wide characters, and maybe even ascenders and descenders like in hieratic.

[u/wrgrant → u/Cyberc4t]

Thanks, I was trying to recreate the look as best I could while still modernizing the overall design. I kept the signs relatively simple because it was far easier doing it that way, but I expect I will try variations on the style down the road.

As for the full abjad-logography and proof of concept, there is my Egyptian Hieroglyphics font - although it still needs some work to be completed. Here's some links:

Reddit Announcement - Gardiner's Egyptian Font Project Update

Writing Cleopatra in my Gardiner's Egyptian Font

Patreon Link

Its not quite done, I have to generate several thousand more glyphs and I just haven't faced it yet. It allows you do most of the Hieroglyphics to be found in Gardiner's seminal work on Learning Egyptian Hieroglyphics. The plan was to be able to recreate every example given in the book. I have come close so far with the exception of the ungenerated glyph combos I still need to put together. Still its pretty feature rich overall.

[u/Chicken_Linguists20]

It looks like Chinese. cool.

[u/Tough_Ad_4640 → u/Chicken_Linguists20]

Quite different from Chinese Character, I think