Typographical advocacy in the age of digital encoding

• Autores: Iair G. Or
• Localización: Language policy, ISSN 1568-4555, Vol. 21, Nº. 4, 2022 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Advocacy Research and Issues in Language Policy), págs. 527-543
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper contemplates the concept of typographical advocacy, defined here as a variety of activities, strategies, and policies designed to increase or enhance language support in computing systems, facilitating typing and displaying texts in local languages. Focusing on the cases of Spanish and Paraguayan Guarani, the paper traces some existing efforts in the domain of typographical advocacy and strives to explain their dynamics. An attempt is made to examine both situations in which typographical advocacy is visible and explicit (as in the case of Spanish) and cases in which advocacy seems negligible (as in the case of Guarani). A wide range of enabling and hindering factors are examined, such as the relations between tech companies, nation-state institutions, consumers, and the habitus created by the use of technology. Through these examples, the rationale for advocacy is explored as well as alternative courses of action in cases where advocacy is not desired or fails to achieve its goals. A case will be made for raising the awareness of typographical issues in language planning and policy (LPP) both as part of broader multilingual awareness and as a tool for solving practical language problems in times of increased dependency on computing and mobile devices.