In doing some research for a school project I discovered the Canadian province of Nunavut has created its own typeface!

Interesting, I’m totally intrigued. It’s called Pigiarniq.

The latin portion of the alphabet is quite lovely, and then the Aboriginal portion is just incredible. So it’s basically a geometry class, to check out their phonetics.

Tiro Typeworks took care of the design and also have another version available called Uqammaq.

Tiro also has an upcoming typeface for the Cherokee language, as well as faces for other Inuktitut & Cree languages. Check it if you want it. This is a new concept to me, designing typefaces for first nations dialects – and creating bundled downloads to fit the syllabic languages to your western keyboards. How thoughtful!

From the Canadian Design Resource:

With only 0.01 people per 1km² of land, Nunavut is one of the least populated regions in the world; however the 28,000 citizens that live throughout Nunavut speak at least 4 different languages (French, English, Innuinaqtun and Inuktitut).

Pigiarniq free download