On the 1967 LP he produced and played on titled "Hard Rock From The Middle East," Felix Pappalardi included an instrumental, "Miserlou," made famous by Dick Dale. So this enquiring mind always wondered what that meant (someone named Lou was miserable?). I had to wait until the arrival of the Internet to find that it meant "the Egyptian girl," Misr (actually Al-Misr) denoting Egypt. What?
Of course most of us are aware that Germany, for example, is really called Deutschland by its residents, but we know more about the Americas and Europe in general. So, I've gone on a little quest to find out what people actually call their own homelands.
Some have long formal names, like The Republic of the Union of Myanmar (formerly the more concise Burma), the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, and Brunei Darusalaam. Others in the native language look pretty strange, such as Kalaalut Nunaat (Greenland) and Sakartvelo (the republic of Georgia -- not the state with peaches and peanuts).
Switzerland has four languages, so it is variously Schweizer (or Schwitz), Suisse, Svizerra, or Svizzer. On its coinage and stamps, it is the Confederation of Helvetica (the Latin name for the original Celtic inhabitants). Belgium, with only two tongues to deal with is either Belgie or Belgique. And with many more languages than anywhere else, India is Bharat -- in Hindi. Let's leave it at that.
China is Zhang Guo, meaning the Middle Kingdom, or a little more accurately, I think, the Central State. In Mandarin they call us Mei Guo, "the beautiful country," not out of any great affection, but that's how "America" comes out phonetically. In the southern Chinese language we're "colorful flag country."
BTW, ancient Egyptians called their riverside home Kemet. You may need that for your next pub trivia night.
Helvetica or Neue Haas Grotesk is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with input from Eduard Hoffmann.
ReplyDeleteHelvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs.[2] Its use became a hallmark of the International Typographic Style that emerged from the work of Swiss designers in the 1950s and '60s, becoming one of the most popular typefaces of the mid-20th century.[3] Over the years, a wide range of variants have been released in different weights, widths, and sizes, as well as matching designs for a range of non-Latin alphabets. Notable features of Helvetica as originally designed include a high x-height, the termination of strokes on horizontal or vertical lines and an unusually tight spacing between letters, which combine to give it a dense, solid appearance.
Developed by the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) of Münchenstein, Switzerland, its release was planned to match a trend: a resurgence of interest in turn-of-the-century "grotesque" sans-serifs among European graphic designers, that also saw the release of Univers by Adrian Frutiger the same year.[4][5][6] Hoffmann was the president of the Haas Type Foundry, while Miedinger was a freelance graphic designer who had formerly worked as a Haas salesman and designer.[7]
Miedinger and Hoffmann set out to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage.[7] Originally named Neue Haas Grotesk (New Haas Grotesque), it was rapidly licensed by Linotype and renamed Helvetica in 1960, which in Latin means "Swiss" (from Helvetia), capitalising on Switzerland's reputation as a centre of ultra-modern graphic design.[8] A feature-length film directed by Gary Hustwit was released in 2007 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the typeface's introduction in 1957.[9]