Review of Shapes for Sounds by Timothy Donaldson

An Informative and Entertaining Book on the Evolution of Alphabets

Jun 24, 2009

Written by a typeface designer, this book is a virtual Bible of the Latin alphabet, revealing that it consists of far more than 26 letters evolved from Phoenician forms.

Shape for Sounds is Timothy Donaldson's first book and is very ambitious. On the cover is the word "cowhouse" in parentheses, and the books subtitle is "Why alphabets look like they do, what has happened to them since printing was invented, why they won't ever change, and how it might have been." Below all that in smaller type is the question in brackets "and what does cowhouse mean?"

The book examines one of the most fundamental discoveries in human history: the idea that shapes can represent sounds, which is the basis for all of the world's alphabets. The book shows the evolution of many alphabets, but focuses on the Latin alphabet. The book is beautifully presented, and although the focus may sound narrow it will appeal to a wide range of readers.

The English language contains around half a million words which are all made from twenty-six letters which account for the approximately 43 elementary sounds. Shape for Sounds explores the connections between speech and written language through sections that touch on the organs of speech, the physics of articulation, the naming of letters and the shaping of letters. It shows the sonic origin and development of the Latin alphabet coincident with that of other preceding, later and related alphabets.

The book is divided into two sections: 'Sound' is about how people physically make noises and how they function as the building blocks of language including the division between consonants and vowels. This introduces the 'Shape' section which starts on the shapes of letters beginning with cuneiform and hieroglyphics to encoded, sonic, and visual alphabets, including morse code, barcodes, ASCII and sign language, that are a byproduct of modern technology.

Next are 26 charts each representing a single letter and showing its evolution over time. Each one includes a diagram of the throat, tongue and nasal cavity showing how the sound of each letter is generated. Finally there are extensive and interesting appendices crammed full of trivia. They include: a demonstration of how alphabets grow over time in sophistication, from pictography (picture-writing) and logography (word-writing) to phonography (sound-writing).

Who is Timothy Donaldson?

Timothy Donaldson is a typeface designer who wrote the book for educational purposes while teaching at Stafford College in the UK. He is known for his decorative designs and won a Morisawa Award in 1996 for his Amadeo typeface. He has taught calligraphy, conceptual art, illustration, graphic design and type design. He has written several articles and papers, but this is his first book.

He also designed the book himself and it is typeset in a new family, Manchester, which he designed. Every detail is carefully thought out and masterfully put together. The spine of the book has a pattern of multicoloured bars, which the reader finds is a message encoded using a colour alphabet developed by Christian Faur.

Publication Details

Donaldson, Timothy, Shapes for Sounds, Mark Batty Publisher, 25 October 2008, Hardcover, 176 pages ISBN-10: 097996620, ISBN-13: 978 0979966620

The book can be bought from Mark Batty Publisher, amazon.com, designersreviewofbooks.com and other design bookstores.

The copyright of the article Review of Shapes for Sounds by Timothy Donaldson in Language Books is owned by Jo Jackson. Permission to republish Review of Shapes for Sounds by Timothy Donaldson in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.