Абетка української мови: формотворчий аналіз

Abstract

У статті аналізується проект нової графіки абетки української мови, запропонований відомим художником та шрифтознавцем В. Чебаником. Зроблено графічний та морфологічний аналіз графемоутворюючих елементів літер нової абетки. Досліджуються історичні витоки конструкцій нових графем та їхній вплив на ритміку рядка. The article analyzes the project of the new graphics of the Ukrainian alphabet proposed by a famous artist and a specialist in fonts V. Chebanik that experiments with calligraphic fonts which graphical image is based on historical Ukrainian handwritings, such as: ustav, semi-ustav, skoropys. The author of the project successfully combines the qualities of a calligrapher and a font designer. It is known that most of the modern Cyrillic fonts are adapted from European typefaces created in the 90s of the twentieth century. There was only one Cyrillic font, developed in the twentieth century in the USSR, which was based on the structure of Ukrainian semi-ustav handwriting. It is a Khomenko’s typeface. Establishment of the national Ukrainian alphabet should become a project of national significance, because, according to the author: «The font must be a visualization of the language, plastically coinciding with the particular qualities of its melodics... Alphabet has to become one of the symbols of statehood on par with the coat of arms and the national anthem». The author of the article is the developer of several Cyrillic fonts that are used in the design of school textbooks. He is also the author of the textbook «Aesthetics of Ukrainian handwriting font» and a number of publications on this subject. The article presents a graphical and morphological analysis of the alphabet of the Ukrainian language, proposed by V. Chebanik, to identify the new proportions of individual shaping elements of letters, as well as to study the impact of new constructions of connecting nodes on the rhythm of the line. Parallelly, there’s presented a graphical analysis of the historical origins of new graphemes, proposed by the author of the project. As a result of the analysis, we see that the development of the new Cyrillic fonts is based on the study of historic structures of Glagolitic letters, as well as the ancient Ukrainian, Greek, Old-Belarusian handwritings. The author concludes that the project is based on a deep study of the origins of Cyrillic font, and, at the same time, it is in line with the current aesthetics of graphic design, qualitatively improving the rhythmic characteristics of graphemes.