#abeceda

Typography Tuesday

KAREL TEIGE

Presented here are the typographic photomontage designs by Czech avant-garde artist, writer, and designer Karel Teige (1900-1951) for the 24-poem sequence Abeceda (Prague, 1926) by his friend Vítězslav Nezval (1900-1958), featuring dancer Milča Mayerová (1901-1977). All were members of the Czech avant-garde group Devětsil (1926-1930). These images are reproduced in ABZ, edited by Julian Rothenstein and Mel Gooding, and published in San Francisco by Chronicle Books in 2003 (an earlier edition was published by Shambhala in 1993 as Alphabets & Other Signs).

Teige's designs are a demonstration of his Constructivist aim to create a new "optical language, a system of signs capable of embodying words in graphic figures." They are a manifestation of what László Moholy-Nagy had called for in his influential 1925 Bauhaus book Painting, Photography, Film -- the dynamic combination of photographic image and lettering he termed "typofoto."

А а (A a)

Б б (B b)

В в (V v)

Г г (G g)

Д д (D d)

Ђ ђ (Đ đ)

Е е (E e)

Ж ж (Ž ž)

З з (Z z)

И и (I i)

Ј ј (J j)

К к (K k)

Л л (L l)

Љ љ (Lj lj)

М м (M m)

Н н (N n)

Њ њ (Nj nj)

О о (O o)

П п (P p)

Р р (R r)

С с (S s)

Т т (T t)

Ћ ћ (Ć ć)

Ч ч (Č č)

Џ џ (Dž dž)

Ш ш (Š š)

The Serbian alphabet (абецеда/abeceda) had 30 letters, 5 or 6 vowels (r can sometimes be used as one) and 25 consonants. 

As the saying goes, every letter is pronounced as it is written. A is pronounced as if you’re yelling out “Ah” and B is a dull sound, like the b in “bullet”. To prevent this post from getting too long, here’s a song that clearly pronounces all of the letters (I couldn’t find an adult version of any of these songs! Sorry!)

Serbians used to have a cyrillic alphabet similar to current Eastern alphabets. It was then re-done by a man named Vuk Karadžić (x) who decided that the letters were to hard to pronounce (essentially, he was the one who made the alphabet be pronounced as it is written).