Forms of Đ

Denis Moyogo Jacquerye writes:

Hi Donny,

Thank you for Vietnamese Typography, it’s a great resource.

I’m wondering if it would be worth mentioning the forms of capital Đ with the bar across the whole letter width used in Vietnamese until about the 1980s in the Dyet section of the Diacritical details of Vietnamese Typography. It seems these forms were common in the 1800s and a large part of the 1900s.

For example:

Nguyễn Đình Hoà, Vietnamese-English dictionary, 1966

Của tôi: tập đọc chữ quốc ngữ, 1924

Kind regards
Denis Moyogo Jacquerye

I must admit. The form of capital Đ with the bar across the whole letter is new to me. I don’t recall seeing that. I am not sure when the cross bar was shortened, but it has be been much earlier than 1980s. Though I can’t confirm that. I decided not to include in my book to make it less confusing for type designers since the practice is no longer applicable.

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I just wanted to write a quick “lưu ý” to tell you that you absolutely kill me. Your website, Vietnamese Typography, is stunningly beautiful. I visited often in the past few days as I started to learn Vietnamese language. The visual appeal, the great deal of sense and care you put into your online book is really helpful for me, in an emotional as well as practical sense.

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