Faux exotic typefaces

[UPDATE: If you are interested in exoticized lettering, please see the new Geek of Type and Lettering category I have created for collecting samples I have found since this post was mentioned on Language Log.]

Not that long ago I wrote about the preservation of typeface features across different scripts.  Here's an observation of a different cross-script typeface phenomenon.  You are undoubtedly familiar with typefaces that provide Roman characters in a style that is evocative of other, non-Roman scripts. For example, on a Chinese food container, you might see a typeface like this one:

There are typefaces that evoke Hebrew characters, like this one from the cover of an album of Klezmer music:

Other typefaces are designed to resemble Arabic script, and even Devanagari, the script in which Hindi is written.

I actually hate these faux exotic typefaces.  They strike me as too cutesy, an ersatz fetishization that bastardizes the true beauty and diversity of the world's writing systems. 

But I noticed a very interesting use of these faux exotic typefaces on the posters for the recent Hindi film Umrao Jaan.  The film takes place amidst the Muslim elite of mid-19th century Lucknow, a golden age of Urdu culture and literature.  Urdu is written in an adapted version of the Persian script, which is itself an adaptation of the Arabic script.  So it is no surprise that on posters that display the film's name in Roman script, an Arabic-styled Roman typeface is used:

Indeed, during the film's title sequence (and on its official website), these words are animated to appear letter-by-letter on the screen from right to left, as if they are being written by an Urdu scribe. 

What is particularly cool, though, is that posters that display the film's name in Devanagari also use an Arabic-styled typeface, this time an Arabic-styled Devanagari typeface!

Compare this to the film's name written in plain, unstylized Devanagari:  उमराव जान.  In the poster's Urdu-ized version, the upper line that joins the letters (called the "rekha," line) has been removed.  That line is a very strong distinguishing feature of Devanagari (and its siblings) - indeed, the rekha is what gives the  "namaskar" sample above its distinctly Indic feel.  Yet in the poster, it has been removed, and the immediate effect is Devanagari that looks a lot less like Devanagari.  The addition of the curving extensions of the lower strokes on some of the letterforms, as well as the meaningless dots beneath some of the letters, completes the Urdu-ization of the typeface.

(Fans of Hindi films should feel free to insert at this point their own jokes about Umrao Jaan without its Rekha.)

(Although Devanagari has a rekha-less sister script, Gujarati, given the centrality of Urdu to the setting of Umrao Jaan, it is clear that the intent of the poster is clearly Urdu-ization rather than Gujju-ization.  Just for fun, though, here's "Umrao Jaan" in Gujarati:  ઉમરાવ જાન) 

Even though I dislike these pseudo-exotic typefaces, it is fascinating to see the exoticization process play out between two scripts, neither of which is Roman. 

Comments

[Pedant]

The Umrao Jaan examples aren't typefaces, they're lettering.

(But well done for avoiding the f-word!)

[Ran]

The "Fables" series of comic books has some excellent faux-exotic lettering, and I think its use of them is reasonable: it lets you know what language the characters are speaking. (In particular, there was a while where there was a lot of Arabic, and I think it would have been harder to follow what was going on if it hadn't been clear who was speaking which language when.)

[mollymooly]

Asterix does this too: the Gauls' and Romans' speech-bubbles are in a default comicbook lettering; the Goths' language is represented by black-letter; and Greek by taverna-style straight-line letters. The Egyptians speak in hieroglyphics.

[Nicole]

Loved your post! Do (any of) you happen to know if/where these typefaces are downloadable? Thank you!

[mollymooly]

For Asterix typefaces see http://asterix.openscroll.org/typography.html

[Ben]

I adore this kind of artform, actually. My favorite has to be from one non-Latin script to the next, or possibly pseudo-Latin in another script (I've seen this for Thai). I had a large collection of these sorts of letterings from pictures I've taken from around the world, but unfortunately, I lost them in a hard drive crash. My pride and joy were Hebrew and Georgian faux-Japanese that I saw in some different Sushi bars. If anybody here has images of these, I'd love to see them again.
-Ben

[sephia karta]

I had always taken the title of the movie to be Umrao Jaan, but now, going by the devanagari, I see that it must be Umrav Jaan.

[carla]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I am thinking of starting an on-line collection of examples of this kind of exoticized lettering, where I can collect everyone's favorites.

Sephia, the letter combination -aav in Hindi is often pronounced -ao, as in "Umrao Jaan" and in the surname "Rao" among other places. I am not sure why - may be a vestigial spelling of some kind or just the fact that the "-v" letter is often pronounced "w".

[Hari]

The 'va' sound is a semi-vowel, often formed by the sandhi of 'u' and 'a'. The sandhi of 'a' and 'u' is close to the 'ao/av' sound. The spelling above is to suggest that the 'a' sound is longer.

(By 'a' and 'h', I actually mean the short "aah" and "ooh" sounds, which are transliterated as 'a' and 'u' in India, often leading ot a lot of confusion. My name sounds more like 'hurry' than 'harry' for one :-)

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