Mixed Messages

Capitol Hill, January 2010. There are certain magical spaces within the realm of DC where parking is both permitted and forbidden at the same time.

Eastern Market, February 2010. Another case of mixed messages - go pay for your inability to park!

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.

Taiwan Consulate Visit

For a variety of complex reasons, Taiwan does not have an official "embassy" in DC; instead, there's something called the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO). Today, I visited the Consulate Division today to do some business. Above, the entrance sign (note the American U. sign reflection in the background) - don't really have much to say other than I think this image looks cool.

A little bit about languages on US and Taiwan passports. It used to be the case that only English and French (for a long time the international language of diplomacy) were used on US passports, but a Bill Clinton-era decision added Spanish to the mix. The Taiwan passport uses Chinese and the the more recent global "lingua franca," English.

Here's a selection of the various US- and Taiwan-based publications in the waiting area (some in English, some bilingual, and Mandarin Chinese only).

One fun thing about Taiwanese visual media (newspapers, TV) is that a reader/viewer may be forced to scan text in many directions simultaneously; here, the text on left was in motion scrolling "up" (i.e., to be read from up to down); at bottom, static yellow test reads left to right, and the white text below was in motion scrolling right to left. Meanwhile, Arabic numerals and Roman letters read left to right.

One last item of interest on the wall: a poster bearing a poem about city life in Taipei (originally written in Chinese) is rendered into German and English translations, each by a local translator. As far as I could tell, the translations were perfectly fine (the poem itself didn't strike me as too complex).

Old Treasury Department Seal

I walked by the Treasury Department building this afternoon and noticed this old Latin seal. It struck my eye because of its heavily abbreviated text: THESAUR. AMER. SEPTENT. SIGIL. = Thesaur[i] Ameri[icae] Septent[rionalis] Sigil[um], or "Seal of the Treasury of North America." The designation of "North America" intrigues me. Did the US originally think it would claim all of North America (including Canada?).

Why is the text so abbreviated? The skeptic in me imagines two possible explanations: 1. It's the treasury department, so they are simply being cheapskates and saving money/space by abbreviating; 2. It cuts down the possibility of linguistic errors - if you just leave off the end of the words you (conveniently) don't have to worry about all the tricky Latin declensions.

For more on this seal (which was apparently replaced in 1968), see this website.

Nellies Sports Bar Men's Room

The men's room in Nellie's Sports Bar contains a lot of humorous Braille signage.

P.S. For another (older) photo of more Braille signage at Nellie's, see here.

Virtual Medieval Media (Interactive Gutenberg Bible)

Library of Congress, November 2009. I must say the interactive display accompanying the LOC's Gutenberg Bible is really cool. The Gutenberg Bible is of course one of the first texts in Western Europe to be produced using movable print technology. This touch-screen display allows you to navigate the text "virtually" (here, "hot spots" on the screen allow you to see chapter headings, rubrics, Latin abbreviations, etc.).

Another image from a different page in this bible. I find it interesting that so many of the terms we use to describe how we navigate digital media are simply imported from previous technologies: e.g., (web)page, scroll, tab, bookmark. There's something uncanny - familiar and yet strange - about navigating the "virtual" text in such a dynamic way while the original physical text remains inert in a stuffy display case just a few feet away.

Extraneoüs üse of ümlaüts

A few days ago, near McPherson Square Metro. Extraneoüs üse of ümlaüts in poster for "Yogen Früz" (frozen yogurt establishment). Here, the umlaut mark (i.e., double-dot above a letter) evokes certain vowels in Germanic languages, perhaps along the lines of "Häagen-Dazs" ice cream?

(Little bit of trivia: "Häagen-Dazs" is an invented name that does not actually exist in any Germanic language).

Collapsing Bank (Sign of the Times)

Today in Chinatown. Looks like there are a few strokes missing in the Chinese characters for "bank" (銀行); two missing on the top left of 銀 and one missing at the top right of 銀行. Perhaps this "bank" inscription is falling apart, or maybe it wasn't written correctly to begin with...