Bar of Cyrillic fita should not be wavy

[dscorbett]

Font

NotoSerif-Regular.ttf

Where the font came from, and when

Site: https://github.com/googlefonts/noto-fonts/blob/bf20559450ec75aec7a646b208343540a4496262/phaseIII_only/hinted/ttf/NotoSerif/NotoSerif-Regular.ttf
Date: 2020-08-01

Font version

Version 2.003; ttfautohint (v1.8.2)

Issue

The horizontal bar of the Cyrillic letter fita in Noto Serif is wavy. It should be straight. In this style of font, fita looks identical to barred o; they would look different in, for example, an ustav font.

It’s easy to find sources on the internet stating the above. For example, the Wikipedia article Fita currently says “In modern-style (Petrine or civil) fonts, depending on the typeface, the center line may be either straight or waving, matching the center line of "Э" (thus, the sample shape provided in the Unicode chart is wrong.)” In case doubts remain, though, I have gathered the following evidence.

A font designer might be tempted to give fita a wavy bar and barred o a straight bar to avoid homoglyphs. That is an artificial, unhistorical distinction. (It would be equally wrong to give fita a straight bar and barred o a wavy bar.) The alphabet chart at https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Cheremisov_Buriad_russ_slov.pdf#page=9 shows that barred o may have a wavy bar. It also shows e with a wavy bar: the style of horizontal bars is a function of the font style, not of the letter. (Incidentally, the bar of the Latin barred o shows the same variation; see https://nbdrx.ru/pdf/bx0000493.pdf#page=3 for an example with a wavy bar. The Unicode names of the case pair attest to the variability: U+019F LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH MIDDLE TILDE and U+0275 LATIN SMALL LETTER BARRED O. The Cyrillic version of the letter shows the same variability.)

Here are some alphabet charts showing barred o and e with a horizontal bar. (This is more evidence that bar style is consistent throughout a font.)

• https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Yukagirsko_rus_slovar.pdf#page=16
• https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Slovar_ketsko-russkij_i_russko-ketskij.pdf#page=10
  • The scan quality makes it look like the capital barred o here is slightly wavy. There’s a clearer glyph in the heading on page 73.

And here are some sources containing both fita and e, both with straight bars. (This is evidence that fita may have a straight bar, and more evidence that bar style is consistent throughout a font.)

• https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/booksRu/V_Magnicki_Chuvash_yazicheskie_imena.pdf
  • page=3, line 10: “Ѳ.”
  • page=10, entry 151: “Эльмѐнь”
• https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Dyachenko_Tserkovno-slavyanskiy%20slovar.pdf
  • p. 3, headword “А҆вїмеле́хъ”, line 11: “Авіаѳара”
  • p. 3, headword “А҆враа́мъ”, line 2: “Ѳарры”
  • p. 3, headword “А҆ведда́ръ”, line 2: “Эдома”
  • p. 4, headword “А҆́гїосъ”, line 1: “это”
• https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Ostromir_evang_slov.pdf
  • page=949: the fita section
  • page=204, headword “ѥдесьскъ”, line 1: “эдесскій”
• https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/sreznevsky_slovar_drevnerusskogo_jazyka_tom1_a-k.pdf
  • page=6, last line: “этого”
  • page=422, headword “ЕДЪВА” (continued from previous page), line 10 (on this page): “Ѳеод.”
• https://books.google.ru/books?id=6hYLAAAAIAAJ (transcribed at https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%B0)
  • pg=PA1, chapter contents list: “Аѳони”
  • pg=PA3, line 9: “этихъ”

Here are some more sources for fita with a straight bar. (This is evidence that I got tired of hunting for instances of e. It’s not a common letter, after all.)

• https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/sreznevsky_slovar_drevnerusskogo_jazyka_tom3_r-ja.pdf
  • page=845: the fita section
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1903._%D0%A1%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA_%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%87_%D0%B8_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2_%D0%B4%D0%BB%D1%8F_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%84%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B5.djvu
  • title: “АРИѲМЕТИКЕ”
• https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%BA_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE_%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%BB%D0%B8_%D0%BB%D1%8E%D0%B4%D0%B8_%D0%B4%D0%BE_%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%8F%D1%89%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%84%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8_page_1.jpg
• title: “АРИѲМЕТИКИ”

Cf. Noto Mono and Noto Sans. They get it right.

Character data

ѲѳⷴЭэӨө
U+0472 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER FITA
U+0473 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER FITA
U+2DF4 COMBINING CYRILLIC LETTER FITA
U+042D CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER E
U+044D CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER E
U+04E8 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BARRED O
U+04E9 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BARRED O

Screenshot

[nizarsq]