Arts Thread

Jуг (“South” in serbian) is a font that deals with the re-examination of stereotypes and perceptions of “southern dialects” in the Serbian language. In contemporary Serbian society, speakers of southern dialects are daily attributed a number of mostly negative, extra-linguistic characteristics due to the prevailing stereotypes about the dialects of southern Serbia. These dialects are often considered backward, irregular, ugly and a symbol of bad taste, and their speakers are considered culturally and economically backward, uneducated, rural and comical, and an important role in this perception is played by the local popular culture. The font Jуг re-examines these characteristics, recontextualizes them and strives to show the linguistic creativity, linguistic richness and diversity of these dialects and to position them in the public space as part of cultural heritage and cultural identity. The parameters for designing the font were precisely those attributes that southern dialects are often described with (irregularity, rhythm and dynamics, practicality, simplicity and rawness), and the font resulted in a publication-spelling book, which aims to place these dialects in a contemporary and educational context and bring the creativity of this language closer to the audience through the font.