A few weeks ago, we were asked to translate the famous sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” into three Asian languages. Just another translation request? Far from it!
In English, this famous sentence is a pangram – a sentence containing every letter of the alphabet – and it’s commonly used to check how fonts look and behave. But in Asian languages, where writing systems don’t rely on alphabets, the approach to font testing is quite different.
What is a pangram?
A pangram is a sentence that uses every letter of a language’s alphabet at least once. This is exactly the case with “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. (You can check, we’ll wait.) While English only needs 26 letters, languages like Chinese and Japanese need more creative solutions due to their vast number of characters.
Chinese: glass and monkeys
Chinese doesn’t have a true pangram. It’s impossible to include all thousands of characters in one sentence. Instead, sentences showcase a variety of characters with different strokes and radicals. The most famous example is:
我能吞下玻璃而不伤身体
“I can eat glass without hurting my body.”
This curious phrase is popular for font testing because it combines simple and complex characters, featuring diverse strokes.
Other sentences, like 齐天大圣巡天扫北斗 (“The Monkey King patrols the sky, sweeping the Big Dipper”), serve similar purposes, offering a mix of characters.
Japanese: blending writing systems
Japanese uses three writing systems – kanji, hiragana, and katakana – so font testing balances all three. A common test sentence is:
デジタル文字は美しく進化する
“Digital text evolves beautifully.”
This phrase not only demonstrates the interplay of different writing systems but also highlights the aesthetic qualities of Japanese typography.
Korean: Hangul hamster
Hangul, the Korean alphabet, has 24 basic letters, making it perfect for pangrams. A playful example is:
다람쥐 헌 쳇바퀴에 타고파
“A squirrel wants to get on an old hamster wheel.”
This sentence captures every letter while remaining short and memorable, ideal for testing fonts.
The universal character: 永
For all East Asian scripts using Chinese characters, the character 永 (which means eternity) is invaluable. The character is identical in Japanese and Chinese (simplified and traditional), and it contains all fundamental strokes – including straight lines, curved strokes and complex corners and transitions between strokes – making it a go-to for testing character shapes.
Font testing in Asian languages
While pangrams like “The quick brown fox…” showcase the entire English alphabet, Asian languages focus on sentences that demonstrate structural variety. Each pangram reflects the unique characteristics of the language and its writing system. Whether it’s glass-eating in Chinese or squirrels in Korean, these sentences bring typography to life in a way that is practical and artistic.
Curious how we could support you with Asian languages?
