New Glagolitic Signs In A Digital Age

Human communication is based on messsage transfer and its simplification (Danesi, 2004, 1). With the development of human writing systems ways of written communication have also changed (Cvitic, 2011, 3), new scripts have been developed (such as Glagolitic script – script created in 9th century), as well as new signs in existing scripts. Digital age is accelerating written communication is introducing a large number of new signs (monkey, emotions etc.). Although Glagolitic script is not in official use any more its comeback through projects which popularize cultural heritage (project Fabula Croatica for example) has resulted in designing glagolitic fonts (Epistula Croatica and Misal DPG) available for public use. The existance of glagolitic fonts has led to their use in digital medias what brought about the need for introducing new signs to existing Glagolitic script system. The criteria for introducing new signs into the fund of existing glagolitic fonts was the insurance of transcripting given forms to English language. In accordance with the stated criteria it is decided to add signs representing letters Q, X, Y, W and punctuation marks like monkey, ampersand, question mark, exclamation mark and similar to the existing glagolitic font. The authors of this article have proposed their graphic forms with functionality being their main criteria. Designed signs have kept the simplicity in their form and as such contribute previously constructed glagolitic fonts as a unique graphical unit with a clear visual rytham, but also insures the visibility and recognizability of new signs in comparison to the exisiting ones. Because of the fact that glagolitic fonts are available online, authors of the new Glagolitic signs have offered information about Glagolitic script’s exisiting structure of as well as information about the form and function of each glyph.