Typophile

An appeal to native speakers to suggest copy for a typeface specimen.

kris

I am in the process of designing a type specimen. I would like to include copy for the following languages:

• Czech
• English
• French
• German
• Icelandic
• Italian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Swedish

The problem is that I am only fluent in English! I really want to have appropriate copy so native speakers can see how the typeface works in their languages. I could use copy from Project Gutenberg, but what I choose may not be appropriate for the language.

So, Typophiles, I am asking for your help! If you are a native/fluent speaker of the above languages (except English) what text would you like to see in a type specimen? Ideally the copy should be around 200 words, a single paragraph & copyright free. Your help & suggestions will be gratefully received.

—K

Hello Kris,
just a few suggestions on my part, i don’t know if they’re helpful to you or if you want suggestions of actual passages of text.
First of all, i very much appreciate language-specific specimen. Being a native German speaker, blind copy in other languages/ Lorem Ipsum only give a rough idea, the main problem with german being the capitalization of nouns including verbs being used as a noun.
Also, i find blind copy made up of nonexisting words pretty distracting, as i always try to make some sense of it while reading. Even the Quick brown fox or similar things drive me mad, since they always seem to try to be especially smart and witty, which is distracting too when testdriving type for some serious project.
I rather wish for some kind of set of rather specific blind copy, say something for drama/dialogues, something for scientific content, some copy with a lot of figures inbetween, abbreviations, and so on. Actual content that actually or at least theoretically makes sense. I have always found the actual content to be pretty crucial to decide what face to use for it.
So these are my rather general thoughts re this subject, i’m afraid it doesn’t help you any further, so if that’s the case, please excuse me ranting on.

Whoa Kris… NO Dutch? With all those lovely ij’s and some of the longest consonantsequences around?

And why not go with bible passages? That would be a fair way to compare… (And no ©-issues, I guess).

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

> And why not go with bible passages?

Or maybe not, in this day when there are increasing numbers of non-Christians around the world. I like the Gutenberg idea, with its wealth of international resources. But, does it always provide correct accenting in non-English text? I know accents are often lost in the English texts.

Non-Christians might like a good read too… ; )

BTW I’m a fullfledged, licensed, cardbearing agnostic, eg a nonbeliever.

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

Depending on the purpose of the typeface, newspapers in many languages might be a good source. These are easy to get on line, and I doubt if copying only one paragraph for this purpose would be a violation of copyright.

The United Nations page has plenty of material.

ChrisL

Or what about a passage from a story that has been translated into a lot of languages?
I don’t know, maybe something by Lewis Carroll (Alice/Through the looking glass), I think those should be in the public domain by now?

Translations are copyrighted. One of the reasons why there are “new” and “improved” translations of classic books being published every couple of decades.
You’d have to look for old translations and in most languages spelling reforms and such would have made these redundant. (Eg in Dutch the got lost of a lot of “…sch[e]”, replacing them with “…s[e]” in the late fourties of the last century.)

. . .
Bert Vanderveen BNO

Kris, for Spanish I suggest the first paragraph of Don Quixote, which is spelled “Don Quijote” in Spanish. This paragraph has 217 words, and the text is in the public domain, as far as I know. I picked up this version from Project Gutenberg:

En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y quebrantos los sábados, lantejas los viernes, algún palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las tres partes de su hacienda. El resto della concluían sayo de velarte, calzas de velludo para las fiestas, con sus pantuflos de lo mesmo, y los días de entresemana se honraba con su vellorí de lo más fino. Tenía en su casa una ama que pasaba de los cuarenta, y una sobrina que no llegaba a los veinte, y un mozo de campo y plaza, que así ensillaba el rocín como tomaba la podadera. Frisaba la edad de nuestro hidalgo con los cincuenta años; era de complexión recia, seco de carnes, enjuto de rostro, gran madrugador y amigo de la caza. Quieren decir que tenía el sobrenombre de Quijada, o Quesada, que en esto hay alguna diferencia en los autores que deste caso escriben; aunque, por conjeturas verosímiles, se deja entender que se llamaba Quejana. Pero esto importa poco a nuestro cuento; basta que en la narración dél no se salga un punto de la verdad.

This text has plenty of diacriticals and will be easily recognized by any native Spanish speaker. :-)

Ricardo,
Thanks! I’ll use that as well!

ChrisL

Bert

My understanding is that an atheist is someone who “knows” that there is no God, while an agnostic “isn’t sure”. I probably also fit into the latter category, so I can leave my options open for a deathbed conversion, just to cover all the bases.

Kris,
all text in the different language editions of Wikipedia is coyright free / public domain. Plenty of text to choose from, no guarantees on veracity.

Thanks for the Don Quijote passage Ricardo.

...maybe something by Lewis Carroll (Alice/Through the looking glass), I think those should be in the public domain by now?

Yep. So are Henry James and Jules Verne.

j a m e s

Close tag?
ChrisL

> Translations are copyrighted.

Yeah, I understand, I was aiming at older versions of texts. Also older translations.
I don’t see why old spelling would really be a problem, plus, if it’s only a small piece of text, updating this minor spelling changes isn’t too much trouble. ;)

> Yep. So are Henry James and Jules Verne.

Well, all those sound like they could contain some very nice specimen texts. :)

It sounds like your best bet would be a passage of classic literature originally written in each language, and you need suggestions about what works to select.

I’m not a native French speaker, but I have read some French literature. I suggest a paragraph from Les misérables as originally written by Victor Hugo. (Notice that book titles in French have only the first word and proper nouns capitalized.)

This is a paragraph from Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 6 of Les misérables. It’s about the same length as the Don Quixote that Sr Cordoba provided above. It has a good mix of diacritical marks, including à, é, î, and ç, plus the ligature œ and guillemets («»). And it would be recognized by any French speaker.


Jean Valjean était d’un caractère pensif sans être triste, ce qui est le propre des natures affectueuses. Somme toute, pourtant, c’était quelque chose d’assez endormi et d’assez insignifiant, en apparence du moins, que Jean Valjean. Il avait perdu en très bas âge son père et sa mère. Sa mère était morte d’une fièvre de lait mal soignée. Son père, émondeur comme lui, s’était tué en tombant d’un arbre. Il n’était resté à Jean Valjean qu’une sœur plus âgée que lui, veuve, avec sept enfants, filles et garçons. Cette sœur avait élevé Jean Valjean, et tant qu’elle eut son mari elle logea et nourrit son jeune frère. Le mari mourut. L’aîné des sept enfants avait huit ans, le dernier un an. Jean Valjean venait d’atteindre, lui, sa vingt-cinquième année. Il remplaça le père, et soutint à son tour sa sœur qui l’avait élevé. Cela se fit simplement, comme un devoir, même avec quelque chose de bourru de la part de Jean Valjean. Sa jeunesse se dépensait ainsi dans un travail rude et mal payé. On ne lui avait jamais connu de «bonne amie» dans le pays. Il n’avait pas eu le temps d’être amoureux.

Kris, if you need a german text I’d recommend something from Joachim Ringelnatz (aka Hans Bötticher). He was a splendid writer with a kind of abstract writing and well known for his nonsense poetry but also for his accurate novels.

I’d recommend the beginning of his novel »Drama im Zoo« (Drama in the zoo):

Es war schwül. Der Schullehrer sah ernst nach einer heraufziehenden Wolke, die wie ein Wiener Schnitzel aussah. Er trieb seine Kinder vom Elefanten zum Affenland. Die Kinder staunten laut. Hundert Fragen lärmten. Ein Herr mit einem harten Hut verließ stolz die Küste des Affenlandes, schritt steif einer anderen Anlage zu und blickte auf ein Bassin hinunter. »Nichts ist hier zu sehen. – Nur eine lange Schnecke ohne Haus.« Es wurde ganz finster. Der Herr wechselte seine scharfe Brille gegen eine noch schärfere und sah nochmals hinab. »Guten Tag, Herr Gulbransson! Nanu, hier?!« rief er und schwenkte seinen Hut. Der Hut entglitt ihm und trieb dann, Futter nach oben, wie ein Schifflein auf dem Wasser. Außerdem war es gar nicht Herr Gulbransson, sondern ein Seelöwe, der da aufgetaucht war und dem Zeichner Gulbransson sehr ähnlich sah. Der begann sofort, den Hut auf seiner Nase zu balancieren. »Offenbar dressiert. Aber was geht das mich an. Es ist mein Hut!« – Die Schulkinder schwirrten an die halbkreisförmige Mauer. Sie jubelten. Das hatten sie noch gestern im Zirkus bejubelt. Nur war es dort ein Ball gewesen.
Der Lehrer wandte sich an den hutlosen Herrn: »Ist Ihnen Ihr Hut entfallen?« »Das geht Sie gar nichts an.« Der Kurzsichtige hätte vielleicht noch mehr gesagt, aber ein paar Regentropfen hatten seine Brille getrübt, nun putzte er die.

All in all it’s some nonsense story about a man losing his hat in the zoo-bassin, with talking animals, a school class and a dead sea-lion in the end (he was struck by lightning). In this short paragraph the shortsighted man just loses his hat in the bassin of the sealion.

The good thing about the story is, that you can use it as is. Means: although the text is written in the Old Orthography this paragraph uses words which are not concerned by New Orthography (Neue Rechtschreibung) in german. So it is the original which i copied from the ringelnatz-sites from the Gutenberg-Projekt. But all the unique diacritics are in it. In the right place. Plus a fi-Ligature (but don’t use the fl-letters for the fl-Ligature at »Schifflein«). Great.

But if you’d like to use some other feuilletons and articles I wrote for a investment club-Magazine in Austria (one for example about a letterpressshop in Upper Austria) feel free to send me a PM. But I don’t think, it will be suitable next to Don Quijote, Ringelnatz or Les Miserables. So I recommend Ringelnatz.

Good luck.

EDIT: Or yet better: Why don’t you ask Erik Spiekermann about one of his … ?

Thanks for all of your suggestions! I had quite forgotten about Wikipedia—the best thing about wiki is that it gives a list of similar articles in different languages, so the copy will have a common theme. The following copy comes up after a search for “Nation”, which I assume will be OK for the native speakers?

National Languages

English ► A nation is a form of cultural or social community. Nationhood is an ethical and philosophical doctrine and is the starting point for the ideology of nationalism. Members of a “nation” share a common identity, and usually a common origin, in the sense of ancestry, parentage or descent. A nation extends across generations, and includes the dead as full members. Past events are framed in this context; for example; by referring to “our soldiers” in conflicts which took place hundreds of years ago. More vaguely, nations are assumed to include future generations. A nation is not a state, and while …

Česky ► V sociálních vědách převládá názor, že národ je sociální konstrukt. Národnost pak není objektivně daná vlastnost, kterou by bylo možno nezávisle určovat. Národní příslušnost čili národnost lze dle tohoto subjektivistického přístupu určit jen na základě proklamace jedinců (k jakému národu se hlásí). Často je však národnost přiřazována i dle objektivních kritérií - nejčastěji kombinace jazyka a státní příslušnosti. Národní příslušnost je formována na základě působení různých faktorů, především geografických a jazykových, ale také politických, ekonomických a náboženských. Příslušníky národa většinou …

Deutsch ► Natio bezeichnete im Lateinischen ursprünglich eine Gemeinschaft von Menschen gleicher Herkunft, daran anschließend eine durch gemeinsame Sprache, Sitten und Gebräuche kenntliche Gemeinschaft, und zwar im römischen Sprachgebrauch zunächst als Fremdbezeichnung für fremdartiges eingewandertes Volk, das sich mit der einheimischen Bevölkerung vermischt. Anknüpfend an den römischen Sprachgebrauch sind im christlichen Latein die „nationes“ oder „gentes“ in erster Linie die nichtjüdischen Heidenvölker, als Anhänger heidnischer Kulte oder als bekehrungswillige Heiden, …

Français ► Partant de la considération qui précède, selon laquelle « historiquement, en Europe, peu de nations se sont organisées complètement sur le “modèle” français », le traitement de la question juridique relative à la nation suivra ici la logique de ce modèle, et ainsi également la chronologie qui a vu ce modèle être mis en œuvre en France ; des développements parallèles avec illustrations autres qu’appropriées au droit français seraient nécessaires. En considération du “modèle” français, une confusion doit d’abord être écartée : contrairement à ce qui est souvent cru en France, en droit, la …

Italiano ► Renan definisce nazione come l’anima e il principio spirituale di un popolo, che gode di una ricca eredità di ricordi e del consenso attuale. Ne consegue che la nazione esiste finché trova posto nella mente e nel cuore delle persone che la compongono. L’idea di nazione matura nel tempo, soprattutto grazie al concetto di “gruppo di appartenenza”: la nazione è tale dal punto di vista politico. Ciò prevede un profondo senso del “noi”, pace e ordine al suo interno, una serie di simboli e miti comuni, la garanzia di protezione e la consapevolezza della durevolezza nel tempo della nazione rispetto ai singoli …

Nederlands ► Nog steeds is men er niet over eens wat een natie precies is. Het woord is afgeleid van Latijn nasci, natus “geboren worden”, waardoor het eerder in de sfeer van bloedverwantschap dan geestverwantschap ligt. Volgens de meer Germaanse opvatting van natie, die we terugvinden in Nederland, Vlaanderen maar vooral Duitsland, is dat een combinatie van verschillende gedragingen en gewoontes, te weten: godsdienst, gemeenschappelijke afkomst, gewoontes en dergelijke. Een natie is dus een volk, maar dan in de politieke zin, in de context van politieke instellingen. De meer Romaanse opvatting …

Español ► Nación, en sentido estricto, tiene dos acepciones: la nación política, en el ámbito jurídico-político, es el sujeto político en el que reside la soberanía constituyente de un Estado; la nación cultural, concepto socio-ideológico más subjetivo y ambiguo que el anterior, se puede definir a grandes rasgos como una comunidad humana con ciertas características culturales comunes a las que dota de un sentido ético-político. En sentido lato nación se emplea con variados significados: Estado, país, territorio o habitantes de ellos, etnia y otros. En el campo del Derecho político, la nación política es el titular …

Dansk ► En nation (fra lat. nat|io, -onis, f) er betegnelsen for en gruppe mennesker med en følelse af identitet på grundlag af f.eks. etnisk, historisk, kulturel eller sproglig samhørighed. I dagligdags sprogbrug kan grænserne være uklare mellem begreber som folk, nation og stat m.fl.. Akademisk skelnes der dog mellem en nation, forstået som en gruppe mennesker med fælles national identitet, og en stat, forstået som et sæt institutioner med myndighed indenfor et territorium. Ordet nation har haft skiftende betydninger gennem historien. Det latinske ord natio anvendtes i betydningen afstamning eller …

Suomi ► Liberalismin tavoin nationalismi ei ole dogmaattinen ideologia eikä sillä ole mitään suurta opillista esitystä, jolla olisi jokin suurempi merkitys ideologiassa. Toisin kuin saman aikakauden ideologialla, sosialismilla. Nationalismi ei ole myöskään sitoutunut mihinkään puoluekenttään oikeisto-vasemmistoaksellilla. Historiassa on ollut tasaisesti eri puoluekenttiin kuuluneita nationalistisia liikkeitä ja aatteita. Nationalismin liikkuvuus ja mukautumiskyky ideologiana on ollut sille aatehistoriassa etu, mutta myös haitta. Tämän takia nationalismi on yhdistynyt ja muovautunut saman aikakautensa …

Svenska ► En nation är ett kollektiv av människor som förenas av gemensamma faktorer såsom språk, religion, etnicitet, historia, kultur, traditioner och sociala normer. Uttryckande av nation är nationalism. I dagligt tal har ordet nation ofta den överförda betydelsen av den geopolitiska entitet (det vill säga land i den politiska betydelsen, eller stat i den geografiska betydelsen) som en nation förknippar till sig. En stat uppbyggd runt och förknippad med en nation är en nationalstat.on huomioitu paremmin. “Nation” kan, och har, definierats på olika sätt. Nation betecknar nästan alltid en mängd individer och…

By the way, The “Nation” copy is suitable as the typeface is called National. Where would we be without the wonderful interweb, eh?

—K

Tip of the dome to ya, Kris, from a bit accross the big pond :-)

ChrisL

Very well, Kris.

Just a tiny addition for the german text: Either you set the first word Natio as the wiki does in italic/oblique or you should set it with guillemets or quotation marks. Reading it without it it looks like a typo as the latin word natio and the german word Nation are almost the same.

No Portuguese?

I think the Swedish text could use some help. There are some redundancies between the first and second parts of the passage, and there appears to be some stray Finnish in there (“on huomioitu paremmin.”). As an alternative, I propose the following text, which comes from the same Wikipedia article, but has been rearranged into a single paragraph, hopefully more cohesive, discussing various definitions of “Nation”:

”Nation” kan, och har, definierats på olika sätt. Under 1800-talet utvecklades två definitioner av ordet. Den ena definierade en nation rätt och slätt som medborgarna i en stat. Denna definition bortsåg alltså från faktorer som exempelvis gemensamt ursprung och fokuserade på de faktiska gränserna för staten. Den andra definitionen betonade däremot den gemensamma historien och/eller en gemensam kultur. Religion och språk var sekundära men ändå bidragande faktorer till kulturen. Termen ”nation” i meningen ”gemensam härkomst” ligger till grund för Sveriges universitet och högskolors studentnationer, där man ursprungligen blev medlem i nationerna beroende på vilken del av Sverige man kom ifrån. Detta har avvecklats men nationerna och namnen, som exempelvis Smålands nation och Östgöta nation, lever kvar. I dagligt tal har ordet ”nation” ofta den överförda betydelsen av den geopolitiska entitet (det vill säga land i den politiska betydelsen, eller stat i den geografiska betydelsen) som en nation förknippar till sig.

I’m not totally satisfied with how the last sentence fits into the paragraph, but I think on the whole it’s an improvement over the other text. I imagine your cut-off point will be higher than the last sentence anyway :) If any Swedish speakers want to suggest additional edits, varsågoda.

Kris, if you typeset a Swedish text containing quotation marks, you’ll want to use the right-sided mark both to open and to close quotations.

Good luck with the specimen!

I think in Portuguese it will be something like:

Uma nação é uma espécie de comunidade social ou cultural. Nacionalidade é uma doutrina ética e filosófica e é um ponto de partida para a ideologia do nacionalismo.
Os membros de uma nação partilham uma identidade comum, e usualmente uma origem, no sentido ancestral, parental ou de descendência.
Uma nação estende-se por gerações, e inclui os seus mortos como parte dela.
Os eventos passados são definidos neste contexto como por exemplo: a referência aos “nossos soldados” nos conflitos de há centenas de anos.
Mais vagamente, as nações incluem as gerações futuras. Uma nação não é um estado, e embora...

Its quiet diferent from the Portuguese page of the word nation in wikipedia...But the English translated to Portuguese is (more or less) like that...
Even so there are some other Portuguese characters...like
“í”
“à”

António

I think I need to point out that Wikipedia is by no means copyright-free or in the public domain. It is licensed under the GNU Free Document License, which is quite onerous (for a free license).

That is true, but I think that Section 2 of this GNU Free Document License allows the use that is mentioned in this thread?

I can’t help you with the international texts, Kris, but I sure am excited to hear that you are at the specimen stage! We await the release....

From Polish Wiki:

Naród jest zbiorowością terytorialną o określonym składzie etnicznym; wspólnotą o podłożu gospodarczym, politycznym, społecznym i kulturowym, wytworzoną w procesie dziejowym, przejawiającą się w świadomości swych członków. Chociaż naród wyróżnia się na tle innych zbiorowości, to jednak nie jest możliwe precyzyjne zdefiniowanie tego pojęcia. W socjologii nie ma jednej definicji tego pojęcia, istnieją też rozbieżności między stanowiskiem socjologów, antropologów i historyków. Jednym z istotnych wyróżników narodu jest kwestia istnienia świadomości narodowej, czyli postrzegania własnej zbiorowości jako narodu.

In case you decided to go with a book paragraph here’s one from polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz from XIX century. His books are still quite popular in Poland. Pasted paragraph (199 words) is from part 10 from the book titled “Potop”:

Ludziom przywykłym do czci dla urzędu i osoby wydawało się, że i sami Szwedzi nie będą chyba śmieli wznieść świętokradzkiej ręki na takiego magnata. Owszem, ci, którym trwożliwsze serce biło w piersiach, uczuli się zaraz bezpieczniejsi pod jego skrzydłami. Witano więc go radośnie i gorąco; okrzyki brzmiały wzdłuż ulicy, którą orszak posuwał się z wolna ku domowi burmistrza, a głowy chyliły się przed wojewodą, widnym jak na dłoni przez szyby pozłocistej karety. Na owe ukłony odpowiadał wraz z wojewodą Ostrożka, z taką godnością i powagą, jakby wyłącznie jemu były składane. Zaledwie kurz opadł po przejeździe wojewody poznańskiego, gdy gońcy nadbiegli z oznajmieniem, że jedzie stryjeczny jego brat, wojewoda podlaski Piotr Opaliński ze swym szwagrem, panem Jakubem Rozdrażewskim, wojewodą inowrocławskim. Ci przywiedli każdy po sto pięćdziesiąt ludzi zbrojnych prócz dworzan i sług. Potem nie mijał dzień, by ktoś z dygnitarzy nie zjechał: jako pan Sędziwój Czarnkowski, szwagier Krzysztofa, a sam kasztelan poznański, za czym Stanisław Pogorzelski, kasztelan kaliski; Maksymilian Miaskowski, kasztelan krzywiński, i Paweł Gębicki, pan międzyrzecki. Miasteczko napełniło się tak dalece ludźmi, że domów zbrakło na pomieszczenie samych tylko dworzan. Przyległe łąki upstrzyły się namiotami pospolitego ruszenia. Rzekłbyś, że wszystkie ptactwo różnobarwne zleciało się do Piły z całej Rzeczypospolitej.

Complete book can be found at:
http://monika.univ.gda.pl/~literat/potop/0010.htm

Antoni

Hi Kris
The French text is all right by me, BUT I must stress that French standards regarding the spacing of punctuation marks are quite special : you should insert an extra-thin-space (1/8 of an em) before colon and semi-colon as well as INSIDE the French quotation marks « and » (instead of a normal word-space) ; make sure that this particular space can’t be broken, i.e. you don’t have a punctuation mark standing alone at the end or the beginning of a line, disconnected from the words with which it should be associated (I really don’t know if I’m making myself perfectly clear here).

Thus, your French text should look like this :

I just read over the GNU Free Document License; it makes a number of (in my opinion) silly demands for a project such as this, especially if you are using a “modified” text. Clearly the license wasn’t written with type specimens in mind. If you want a Swedish text not governed by the GFDL (or any other license, actually), here’s an excerpt from the “Nation” entry from the Nordisk Familjebok, an out-of-print encyclopedia which Project Runeberg believes to be in the public domain. The passage was taken from http://runeberg.org/nfbs/0286.html. Below are two versions, the original one from 1913 and one I’ve tried to modernize by using current spelling, replacing abbreviations with full words, and eliminating archaic verb forms (and fixing that nasty open-square-bracket, close-parenthesis pair). Since the text is in the public domain, you’d be free to alter either version as you choose.

Nation [-tʃōn; lat. nātio, eg. släkte, af na’sci, födas). 1. Folk; sammanfattning af människor, som ha gemensamhet i härkomst, kroppsbildning, skaplynne, fosterland, språk, kultur, religion, rättsordning, sedvänjor, styrelse och historiska minnen. Orden nation och folk nyttjas öfver hufvud i svenskan utan åtskillnad. — 2. Nationer l. Landskap (Nationsföreningar l. Landskapsföreningar) kallas de föreningar bland de studerande, som vid de svenska universiteten utgöra sammanslutningar af studenterna efter gemensamhet i hembygd, d. v. s. efter stad, landskap eller stift. Som redan namnet ”nation” ger vid handen, är denna inrättning bildad efter utländska mönster. Detta namn träffar nämligen illa in på våra förhållanden, där det skall beteckna landskapsföreningar; och uttrycken ”landsman” (medlem af samma nation som talaren) ”utlänning” och ”främling” (medlem af annan nation än talaren) klinga i våra universitetsstäder egendomligt för den ovanes öra. Men om man däremot tänker t. ex. på universitetet i Paris under medeltiden, där fördelningen verkligen berodde på olika nationalitet (om de fyra nationerna där se Universitet), så äro uttrycken på sin plats och kunna användas i egentlig bemärkelse.

Nation [-tʃōn; lat. nātio, eg. släkte, av na’sci, födas]. 1. Folk; sammanfattning av människor, som har gemensamhet i härkomst, kroppsbildning, skaplynne, fosterland, språk, kultur, religion, rättsordning, sedvänjor, styrelse och historiska minnen. Orden nation och folk nyttjas över huvud i svenskan utan åtskillnad. — 2. Nationer eller Landskap (Nationsföreningar eller Landskapsföreningar) kallas de föreningar bland de studerande, som vid de svenska universiteten utgör sammanslutningar av studenterna efter gemensamhet i hembygd, det vill säga efter stad, landskap eller stift. Som redan namnet ”nation” ger vid handen, är denna inrättning bildad efter utländska mönster. Detta namn träffar nämligen illa in på våra förhållanden, där det ska beteckna landskapsföreningar; och uttrycken ”landsman” (medlem av samma nation som talaren) ”utlänning” och ”främling” (medlem av annan nation än talaren) klinga i våra universitetsstäder egendomligt för den ovanes öra. Men om man däremot tänker till exempel på universitetet i Paris under medeltiden, där fördelningen verkligen berodde på olika nationalitet (om de fyra nationerna där se Universitet), så är uttrycken på sin plats och kan användas i egentlig bemärkelse.

Your Danish text is okay, but since this is meant to showcase your typeface I’d find a way to include the Æ, Ø and Å characters as well (uppercase versions of æ, ø and å).

Not many words start with those letters though. I’ll try to think of some prose with those characters in them.

Captured from web.archive.org on 9 Nov 2007. view this capture