Cultural Connectives: Bridging the Latin and Arabic Alphabets

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Rana Abou Rjeily

Mark Batty Publisher, New York, 2011, English and Arabic

Nonfiction, Graphic Design

7 x 9 inches, 112 pages, hardcover

ISBN: 9781935613138

Suggested Retail Price: $34.95

From the Publisher. Cultural Connectives presents Arabic from a fresh perspective by bridging Arabic and Latin scripts through Mirsaal, a family of typefaces designed by Rana Abou Rjeily that brings the two scripts into typographic harmony, even in light of their differences. Using her designs, Abou Rjeily applies Arabic rules of writing, grammar, and pronunciation to English as a way to introduce Arabic to non-native speakers.

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Maria Popova

On Maria Popova’s Notable Books of 2011 list

Author Rana Abou Rjeily builds an ingenious cross-cultural bridge by way of a typeface family that brings the Arabic and Latin alphabets together and, in the process, fosters a new understanding of Arab culture. Both minimalist and illuminating, the book’s stunning pages map the rules of Arabic writing, grammar, and pronunciation to English, using this typographic harmony as the vehicle for better understanding this ancient culture from a Western standpoint. The book jacket unfolds into a beautiful poster of a timeless quote by Gibran Khalil Gibran, rendered in Arabic: “We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words.”

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