Inuit Writing System (Canadian Embassy)

Last month I spotted these signs at the Canadian Embassy advertising an exhibition of Inuit prints. According to the press release, this exhibit offers "a distinctive portrait of Inuit life and culture in the Canadian Arctic." As usual, the Canadian Embassy poster is in English and French, but it also includes some text in the Inuit language (i.e., the names of the artists). One distinctive feature of the Inuktitut syllabary is its method for representing vowels; the vowel sounds are indicated by the orientation of the symbols (it's easier to see how this works by looking at the chart on this page).

Here's another sign nearby. I don't know what the text actually means here, but the photo at least gives you a better sense of what the script looks like.

For more about this exhibition, see this NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) blog posting.

P.S. I took this photo nearly two years ago (!) but somehow never got around to blogging about it. The poster below (also taken at the Canadian Embassy) advertises "Champlain's Dream" (in French: "Le rêve de Champlain"). This exhibit focused on French exploration of North America, revealing the intertwined histories of present-day New England and Quebec:

In case you're interested, you can see the Washington Post's excellent review (with online gallery).

P.S. For earlier postings about the Canadian Embassy, see here and here.

Obsolete Library Catalog Cards (Library of Congress)

The emergence of the online public-access catalog has largely rendered the traditional library card catalog obsolete. At the Library of Congress, which has a searchable online catalog, this point is made especially clear: old paper catalog cards are unceremoniously stacked among blank pieces of scrap paper. Above is a sampling of old cards I picked up this afternoon (click to enlarge). Counter-clockwise from top left: records for 2 films in English, then other items in German, Spanish, Danish, Russian, and 2 in Hungarian.

For an engaging history of the library card catalog, see here. To see some creative ways of using "retired" library catalog cards, see here.

London: Sundry Items

Continuing my blog entries beyond DC, I include some things from another capital city: London.

Welcome sign at Gatwick Airport. Unusual choice of languages, among them Swedish, English, and (simplified) Mandarin Chinese. Not sure what those other two languages are.

A selection of newspapers in Bloomsbury. I see papers in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, and (perhaps) Arabic.

Elsewhere in London, some silly ethnic stereotyping. Posters on the walls of various tube stations feature celebrity chef Jaime Oliver promoting different "exotic" cuisines (French, Spanish, Italian).

In Southwark, a warning sign on one of the entrances into a mid-day RSC performance of "the Scottish play" (Macbeth) at the Globe. I don't know if this was intentional, but the adjective "gruesome" has been associated with the Scots origins (the Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, cites Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott as some of the earliest quotations). For what it's worth, the verb gruwe(n) does exist in Middle English and the word has even older Germanic origins.

On a side street near the British Library, I spotted this storefront sign. Nice choice for the business name - it signals how the establishment caters to "transvestites, transsexuals, and transgendered" clients (see the website).

This park sign provides many examples supporting the idea that the US and Britain are divided by a common language (click to see larger image). "Whilst" strikes me as a distinctly British usage. Note also "lead" (leash), [trash] "bins" [cans], and "busking" [performing in public places seeking for money - I don't see this term much in the US]. Of course the red "do not X" icons are universal - they work in any language.

I end with this photo I took on the tube (again, click to see larger image). I don't have much to say about it, other than saying I like this poem.

London: Churches and Museums

Various items from churches and museums in London.

This sign for the Chinese Church in London features a nicely stylized form of the Chinese word 華 (huá), which means "China" or "Chinese" in most contexts. Here, a "cross" (or Star of Bethlehem) motif is incorporated into the center of the character.

Near the church, in Chinatown, I saw this poster that teaches children the Pinyin romanization scheme for Chinese. Each sound in Mandarin is assigned a corresponding Roman letter. Most of the words chosen are simple, everyday ideas or objects: 大 (dà) = big, large; 土 (tǔ) = earth, dust. I'm confused by the image for for 你 (nǐ) - I always thought it just mean "you."

St. Dunstan in the West is a church that caters to the demographics of its congregation in a variety of ways. Here, an entrance sign asks visitors to pray for peace (in English, French, German, Russian, Greek, and Romanian). Although the church is Anglican, I noticed many (Greek and Romanian) Orthodox icons and motifs inside. The praying hands are, I suppose, German in origin, after Betende Hände by Albrecht Dürer (c. 1508).

All Hallows by the Tower isn't one of London's most famous churches but it's worth a visit (check out the crypt and the brass rubbing center). Some notable people associated with the church include William Penn (baptized here, 1644) John Quincy Adams (married here, 1797), and Thomas More (beheaded near here, 1535).

The crypt underneath the church allows you to view centuries of treasures. The medieval livery companies of London contributed funds to develop this space to display valued artifacts and documents. Appropriately, a French inscription reads "Conservez ce qu'ont vu vos peres" [Safeguard those things upon which your fathers have looked]. Why French? It's the language medieval guilds used in most of their administrative and civic documents.

There are maritime motifs all throughout the church itself (among other things, there's a Mariners Chapel). This heraldic device is the emblem of the old Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, which bore the Latin motto "Per Mare Ubique" [Everywhere By Sea]. What I find most curious is the use of sea horses as supporters for the shield device! Apparently sea horses do appear elsewhere in heraldic insignia but in more imaginative and stylized forms; see this website (scroll to "sea-horse") for other examples.

I end with this curious detail from a medieval comic strip (or "graphic novel") version of the Book of Revelations. This panel depicts Rev. 16:13-16, when the text describes "three unclean spirits like frogs" coming out of the mouth of the False Prophet, Dragon, and Beast. Read (and hear) more about this artwork, with larger image, at this Victoria and Albert Museum website.

Paris: Landmarks, Monuments, Museums

More linguistically-interesting things I saw in Paris.

A monument to peace within view of the Eiffel Tower. I can't tell how well the word "peace" is rendered in all these languages but the Chinese (和平) is at least legible. Not the best execution but well-intentioned. (By the way, I didn't see English anywhere among these languages! Hmmm...)

Louis Braille, inventor of the raised system of dots for the blind, is entombed beneath the Panthéon. This is one of the rare monuments that actively encourages visitors to touch and interact with it: a  bust, electronically illuminated Braille inscriptions, and audio recordings.

A similar installment for the blind can be found in the Pompidou Center. Here the Braille inscription and a textured pattern allow the visitor to appreciate a work of visual art.

Inside the Louvre Museum there's a series of signs that lay down "les règles de l'art" [the rules of art], i.e. what you're forbidden to do inside (e.g. no touching artworks, no flash photography etc.). I like the humorous and non-verbal aspect of these signs:

And, finally, a trilingual notice in the Palace of Versailles:

Florence: Strange Stuff

This is my final entry about Florence - saving some of the best stuff for last!

Sign outside a door on the train into Italy. This looks to me like a really bad case of inter-linguistic "telephone" - the Italian was first translated into French, and then the French was used as the basis for the (pretty unintelligible) English translation.

A trilingual sign (Italian, English, Spanish) warns people not to buy counterfeit goods. The Italian and Spanish say "it's forbidden to buy fake merchandise or knock-offs (imitation items) from unlicensed vendors" but the English truncates things a bit. Note that "abusivi" doesn't mean "abusive" but rather "unauthorized."

An old clock inside the Duomo. It's a 24-hour clock in with hours as Roman numerals, plus the one (I) is in the 6 position and the hand moves counter-clockwise.

Hotel sign says "breakfast" in Italian, English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, and Japanese. A few diacritical marks are missing in the European languages (e.g. should read Frühstück, petit déjeuner and pequeno almoço) and the sign gives the romanized pronunciation of the Japanese characters 朝食 but overall this one is pretty good.

Lovely museum across the street. "Serial Killer" needs no translation, but "Jack lo Squartatore" [Jack the Ripper] does. (Why not "Giacomo lo Squartatore," I wonder?)

Florence: Churches and Museums

Now for some more signs from Florence - these all come from churches or museums.

Ascending to the dome of the Duomo. I like the graffiti "conversations" that have ensued around this sign. Note someone has crossed out the name HUGO from the Spanish "Hugo y [and] Laura" and replaced it with LAURA ERIC underneath.

Some writing on the top of the dome of the Duomo. For some reason a lot of Korean and Chinese inscriptions. Nice little acrostic involving the names Alex and Andrew (center).

Writing on walls is, of course, an old practice. Here's a 17th century inscription on the way down.

Ten Commandments motif on the doors exiting the Duomo. You can just make out (most of) the Hebrew text of the first 5 commandments.

The translations inside the crypt of the Medici Chapel are mostly unremarkable - but it did strike me as odd how certain words were in bold. I suppose if you were in a hurry or something this could help you scan the text more efficiently.

Lastly, an idiosyncratic sign in the garden of the Franciscan monastery in Fiesole. The Latin NON EST TOTO SANCTIOR MONS (and Italian equivalent, underneath) mean "in the whole world there is no mountain more holy"). Curiously, the word "welcome" (benvenuto / benvenuta) is grammatically inflected in both its masculine and feminine forms (welcoming the male and female reader equally?). The icons for all the forbidden activities are cute.

The Census is Coming!

Just received this notification from the US Census Bureau that the census 2010 forms are coming soon! The letter directs readers to the census website, where you can find directions in a bazillion languages. The languages on this form are English, Spanish, Chinese (simplified characters), Vietnamese, and Russian.

I wonder how they decide which languages to include on this letter? And does the same letter go out to all regions of the US?

It seems a bit inefficient to send out forms to everyone to them know that another form is going to arrive - but I suppose anything to increase awareness is a good thing.

(For more on the census campaign, see the next post).

Multilingual Map: Territorial Waters?

One last detail of this multilingual map. Here we see Florida and the Bahamas (with place-names in English, since the US and UK lay claim to these lands respectively) and Cuba's place-names are in Spanish. When it comes to the sea, English is used right up to the north coast of Cuba; everything south of Cuba is in Spanish.

The use of English or Spanish demarcates different parts of the sea, conceptually it dividing this contiguous body of water into distinct cultural/linguistic zones. The tidy distinction does break down, though; for instance, Jamaica's territory bears English place-names yet the water immediately around the island (presumably within Jamaica's jurisdiction) bears Spanish text. As a whole, the map really visualizes (for me) how arbitrary and paradoxical the notion of "territorial waters" is in the first place. In order to define "territorial water," one must first conceive of water as if it were land (Latin etymology: terra = earth, land).

For more on this map, see here and here.

Multilingual Map: Language and Territory

Another detail of an intriguing multilingual map. All the place-names on this map are written in the official language of the nation-state that lays claim to that land. I'm intrigued here by what happens to the sea. Could the Spanish-language "Golfo de México" imply that this entire body of water "belongs" to Mexico? I would assume that the US (or individual coastal states) must lay claim to jurisdiction over some of the part of the sea before it becomes "international waters" but I'm no expert in maritime law...

For more on this map, see here and here.

Multilingual Caribbean Map: Language and Place

This detail of a multilingual map (in the building where I work) shows two locations very much in the news: Cuba and Haiti. On the left, note "Guantánamo" (with diacritical mark over the A, since all of the Cuban place-names are rendered in Spanish). On the right, HAÏTI (with marks over the I, since all the Haitian place-names are in French). Curiously, the water "in between" these lands is marked neither in Spanish nor French. Instead, it gets an English name: "Windward Passage."

Not quite sure how to interpret the use of English for this particular body of water, but the map as a whole has an interesting way of visualizing the relationship between language and place.

For a larger view of the Caribbean Sea and (here designated in Spanish as "Mar Caribe"), click below.

For more on this map, see here and here.

Peace Pole Project (Multilingual Obelisks)

I've noticed these multilingual obelisks around town for a while but yesterday was the first time I actually stopped to take a close look at a few of them. Each pole bears a different message of peace on each side (typically "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in various languages).

Based on the shape of these objects, I had just assumed the poles were some sort of "DC thing" until I learned (online) that these are actually part of the Peace Pole Project, a larger movement to erect monuments like these worldwide.

From left to right: 1 = Monolingual pole, Foggy Bottom; 2 - 4 = Octolingual pole, William Penn House, Capitol Hill. In alphabetical order, the languages on the William Penn House pole are Arabic, Cherokee, Chinese (simplified), English, French, Hopi, Spanish (I'll leave it up to you to sort out which is which).

It's possible to custom order a peace pole on this website (including hexagonal ones!). See this website for more on the history of the peace pole project.

Multilingual Monkeys

Sackler Gallery, National Mall, Fall 2009. This hanging sculpture entitled "Monkeys Grasping for the Moon" (by Chinese artist Xu Bing) is one of my favorites; the word for "monkey" in various languages/scripts form a linked chain  hanging from the ceiling.

Below, another view of the sculpture (lower in the building):

Read more about this sculpture on this page of the Sackler website or read the story that inspired the artwork.

Multilingual Christmas Wishes

Eastern Market, January 2010. It's several days into the new year, but this tree still bears the Christmas wishes of local residents. English: "Peace to Leslie" (top) and "Peace in the world, joy to the EM community" (bottom). Spanish: "Amor, Paz y Amistad" = Peace, Love and Friendship and "seguir igual de bien que en el 2009" = continue to be just as good as 2009 (top and bottom, in orange). Nonverbal: three peace signs (left, in green). The other inscriptions, apparently written by children: "ALESHA HAPPY" and "I Wish for happness [sic]."

P.S. Quite a few of the decorations (not pictured here) were written by people wishing for Senate to pass the Health Care Bill. It looks like those people got their wish!

German Chinese Restaurant

December 31, 2009. I haven't posted anything in a while because of holiday travels (spent a few weeks in Europe). Before I resume my regular postings, I thought I'd share a particularly memorable experience: eating dinner in a Chinese restaurant in a small German village.

Here's a picture of what was on the table when we arrived: each setting included a quintessential German beer coaster and a napkin teaching Germans various Chinese phrases. Left hand column: "Guten Appetit" = 請您慢用 (qǐng nín màn yòng) - more literally, "please eat slowly." Note the German orthography here: "jon" = "yòng" since J = Y sound.

Our fortune cookies came with fortunes in 4 languages (English and German on one side, Dutch and French on the other).

Here's a picture of the spread. The duck, in foreground, was eine Haus-Spezialität (house specialty). Yum!

Berlin Wall, Pieces of History

Global Resources Center, Gelman Library, George Washington University. An exit sign for the American sector of Berlin bears an inscription in four languages: English, Russian, French, and (in much smaller sized writing) German. English-language graffiti adds another layer of textual complexity.

P.S. The Global Resources Center at GW has organized a series of events to commemorate the Eastern Bloc revolutions of 1989. Other related DC resources: "Making the History of 1989," a website maintained by George Mason University in conjunction with the NEH, CHNM, and German Historical Institute; see also the German Embassy's "Freedom Without Walls" website and my previous post; see this posting too.

P.P.S. Here's a clean version of the sign above, from the display at the Newseum:

A Missing Language

Yesterday I took a trip to the National Gallery of Art. I noticed that the museum provides guide maps in seven languages including English and (L, front to back) French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. But the sign (R) only states that guides are available in six languages (i.e., Chinese is missing).

Was this sign produced before Chinese was added to the pantheon of guide map languages? Or is this discrepancy just another bureaucratic error?