Add your stamps showing 4 or more languages in design

[ILikeMaps]

Thanks Stewie1980

By the way, nice photos from your signature link

[Stewie1980]

Thanks ILikeMaps!

You have an interesting website!
In your list I'm missing Netherlands New Guinea (1949-1962) and the Netherlands Antilles (1949-2010)

[ILikeMaps]

Stewie1980
Thanks for visiting. You are right about missing these countries (and a lot more I can think of) on my Dead Countries list. It is purposely limited to countries which ceased to exist before the end of 1955, primarily because that is what I collect. It also includes some dead countries which never issued postage stamps, but did issue banknotes (like the Republic of Texas).

[MarginBlocks]

Arabic is also a UN working language...wonder why it was left out on this (these) stamp(s)...simply a matter of space?

Arabic became the sixth official language of the United Nations in 1974. The stamp illustrated was issued, I believe, in 1968.

Mark Alan

[ILikeMaps]

My guess is this one is going to take the record.

The Republic of South Africa issued a stamp in 1987 (Scott #702) which had the words "The Bible" translated into 76 different languages spoken throughout Africa.

The first is Afrikaans and the last is English. I do recognize three scripts which uses Ethopian characters, and one is in Arabic.



If anyone has some knowledge about African languages, it would be interesting to know what is included on the stamp.



Michael

[aethelwulf]

Thanks to the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, everyone knows about the "clicking language"...nobody knows the name of it though.

Offhand for African languages I can think of Swahili, Zulu (the biggies obviously), Bantu, Twe. Actually, googling Bantu now, wiki states

The Bantu languages, technically the Narrow Bantu languages, constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages.

Reminds me of PNG, where going over the hill to the next valley, the natives might be speaking something different, or China, where there are large dialects--Cantonese, Fukienese, Shanghainese--but then even those break down into dialects that were only used in a rural county corner of a province.

[vasia]

In an earlier posting on this thread, Hronik showed a 1947 stamp with the state emblem of the USSR with the phrase "Proletarians of the world, unite" written in 16 different languages on the ribbons. There is an earlier 1937 stamp (Scott 658, SG 764 - issued to commemorate the Soviet Consitution of 1936) that depicts the same emblem with 11 ribbons: the pre-war number of Soviet Republics, hence 11 different languages.



The languages are from right to left: Kirghiz, Tadzhik, Uzbek, Armenian, Belorussian, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Azerbaijani, Turkmenian and Kazakh.

This stamp is part of a set (Scott 647-658, SG 753-764) in which each of the remaining stamps depicts the emblem of one of the above-mentioned Republics. Now an interesting and little known detail. The stamp depicting the Belorussian Republic emblem actually carries the slogan "Proletarians of the world, unite" inscribed in 4 different languages on its ribbons:



The languages are those of the main ethnic groups in the Republic: Belorussian, Russian, Yiddish and Polish:



The consequences of World War II (annihilation of the Jewish population, relocation of the Polish one in Poland proper) were reflected in the very same emblem of the Belorussian Republic in the post-war period. In the 1947 set the Yiddish and Polish inscriptions of the slogan are absent, with the Belorrusian and Russian versions taking up both ribbons on each side:

[honza]

The languages are those of the main ethnic groups in the Republic: Belorussian, Russian, Yiddish and Polish:



The consequences of World War II (annihilation of the Jewish population, relocation of the Polish one in Poland proper) were reflected in the very same emblem of the Belorussian Republic in the post-war period. In the 1947 set the Yiddish and Polish inscriptions of the slogan are absent, with the Belorrusian and Russian versions taking up both ribbons on each side:

Ahoj there!

Was Yiddish written in Hebrew characters?

Might it not be Hebrew itself?

Cheers,

Honza

[vasia]

Hello Honza,

I am not an expert in linguistics, but my understanding is that Yiddish was the most prevalent Jewish language in Eastern Europe and it was the one that at that time had acquired the status of one of the official languages in the Belorussian SSR. The use of Hebrew, on the other hand, was generally discouraged in the Soviet Republics.

[gavin-h]

Thanks to the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, everyone knows about the "clicking language"...nobody knows the name of it though.

Xhosa is probably the one you are thinking of.

One of the Nguni languages (part of the larger Bantu group of languages), Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa.

Other Bantu languages include click sounds, as do the Khoisan languages spread widely across Africa.

There is also Damin, an extinct northern Australian ritual language which made use of nasal clicks.

[zaguy]

Thanks to the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, everyone knows about the "clicking language"...nobody knows the name of it though.

Xhosa is probably the one you are thinking of.

One of the Nguni languages (part of the larger Bantu group of languages), Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa.

Other Bantu languages include click sounds, as do the Khoisan languages spread widely across Africa.

There is also Damin, an extinct northern Australian ritual language which made use of nasal clicks.

The one in The Gods must be Crazy is one of the Khoisan languages, not Xhosa. The movie is about an isolated Khoisan tribe on the west coast of South Africa near Namibia, where even now there are very few black people. It was never really settled by anyone but the Khoisan, who are nomadic anyway. It is a very dry and economically depressed area, there are a few diamond mining towns, many now dead mining towns, and some of the Khoisan tribes, the original inhabitants of SA, still live there. There is also now a Khoisan reserve at Riemvasmaak.

[nigelc]

Ahoj there!

Was Yiddish written in Hebrew characters?

Might it not be Hebrew itself?

Cheers,

Honza

Yes, Yiddish is written using the Hebrew alphabet.

[Global Administrator]

My guess is this one is going to take the record.

The Republic of South Africa issued a stamp in 1987 (Scott #702) which had the words "The Bible" translated into 76 different languages spoken throughout Africa.

The first is Afrikaans and the last is English. I do recognize three scripts which uses Ethopian characters, and one is in Arabic.



If anyone has some knowledge about African languages, it would be interesting to know what is included on the stamp.

Michael

So this one takes the cake so far?

Do you (or others) own this stamp - could I bother you for a high rez scan of it please?

Thanks Glen

[ILikeMaps]

Sorry Glen

I don't. I confess, I took this image off the internet.

Michael

[ajolicoe]

Wow you guys are so knowledgeable! Makes me feel pretty insignificant considering that I could only spot like 3 languages on that stamp with 33 on it...
impressive:)

[vicaf60]

All Photobucket “Ransom” images above have been replaced, and saved forever.

[ASPS_StampIT]

Hi a bit late to this topic but of particular interest to me. Particularly the 1966 Danish red cross stamp. Many thanks to all previous who have researched the languages and extremely well done.

I have looked into how to say red cross in the various languages that you've previously specified and listed as follows:

1. Latin – per humanitatem ad pacem – through humanity to peace (red cross motto)

Red cross is written in the language specified and then any differences from stamp are noted in brackets:
2. Danish– røde kors
3. French – croix rouge
4. Icelandic –rauði krossinn (on stamp raudi kross)
5. Dutch – rode kruis (on stamp het rode kruis which is ‘the red cross’)
6. Hindi – रेड क्रॉस
7. Malay / Indonesian – palang merah
8. Bulgarian – Червен кръст
9. Hungarian – vöröskereszt
10. Amharic – ቀይ መስቀል
11. Greek – Ερυθρός Σταυρός
12. Korean? – 국제 적십자사 (not quite the same as on stamp?)
13. Russian- красный Крест
14. Mandarin – 红十字 (on stamp 红十字 会which is ‘red cross society’)
15. Romanian – crucea rosie
16. Thai – กาชาด
17. Czech – červený kříž (on stamp with accent on k instead of r)
18. Albanian – kryqi i kuq (on stamp kryqi i kuqë)
19. Somali ? – bisha cas - (might be Osmanya script on the stamp?)
20. Polish – czerwony krzyz
21. Finnish – punainen risti
22. Arabic – الصليب الاحمر
23. Bosnian -crveni krst
24. Turkish - kızıl haç (on stamp Kizilay which means ‘red crescent’)
25. Japanese - 赤十字
26. Spanish – cruz roja
27. Portuguese - cruz vermelha
28. Gaelic – crois dhearg
29. Persian? – صلیب سرخ (not quite the same as on stamp)
30. German – rotes kreuz
31. English – red cross
32. Italian – croce rossa
33. Swedish – röda korset

So the ones I am not so sure about are Korean, Somali and Persian as they do differ quite a bit to the stamp.

Certainly a good activity for StampIT's Language of Stamps section so something will come in due course!

Thanks

[nigelc]

Hi,

The Persian organisation was known as the Red Lion and Sun Society of Iran and its symbol is shown at the left of the stamp between the Red Cross and Red Crescent symbols.

[ASPS_StampIT]

Thanks for this Nigel and on looking this up, the writing which would appear under the logo matches the translation on stamp. Great.

[RogerE]

Nice to see this thread becoming active again

Readers interested in stamps with multilingual inscriptions will probably also enjoy the Stamps and Languages thread, which is quite active. It only started on Sun May 10, 2020 02:38:07 am, but it is now approaching 1300 posts.

Here is a link to a recent index in that thread:

https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=90529&start=1200
.

/RogerE

[RogerE]

Here's a multilingual philatelic item — a 1929 postcard sent from USSR to USA.

Painting (socialist realism style) in the Tretyakov State Gallery
Russian
А. С. Степанов — A. S. Stepanov
журавли летят [zhuravli letyat] — Cranes flying
French
Passage des grues — Flight of the cranes
Esperanto (manuscript)
Gruoj flugas [zhuravli letyat] — Cranes flying

Russian postcard to Newfane, New York, USA

Printed Russian address instructions translated multilingually by sender
куда [kuda] — to where/whither
= kuda [Cyrillic transliterated to Latin/Roman alphabet]
Esperanto: kien — to where/whither
German: wohin — to where/whither
Spanish: aquí — here (mistake, should be adónde

кому [komu] — to whom
= komu [Cyrillic transliterated to Latin/Roman alphabet]
Esperanto: al kiu — to whom
German: wem — to whom
French: où — where (mistake, should be à qui

The message is in Esperanto. The postcard is a typical example of penpal correspondence facilitated by Esperanto.
A recurring theme among Esperantists was/is that Esperanto allows easy communication between two individuals, neither of whom can speak the other's language. Esperanto periodicals typically included names and addresses of people wanting penpal correspondence in Esperanto.

Summary of message: Recently the sender sent a letter to the addressee. Enquires if it was received, Sender would be very happy to correspond, about whatever the recipient wishes.

Sender's name is M.L. Sannivow; address is Vozhgaly, Viatka District. [Russia]
Вожгалы, Вятского уезда [Vozhgaly, Vyatskogo uyezda]

/RogerE

[Eli]

Thanks for reviving this nice old thread.

This stamp is part of a set (Scott 647-658, SG 753-764) in which each of the remaining stamps depicts the emblem of one of the above-mentioned Republics. Now an interesting and little known detail. The stamp depicting the Belorussian Republic emblem actually carries the slogan "Proletarians of the world, unite" inscribed in 4 different languages on its ribbons:

The languages are those of the main ethnic groups in the Republic: Belorussian, Russian, Yiddish and Polish:

The Yiddish on this stamp says:
"Proletarier von alle länder, vereinigt sich" (Proletarians from all countries, unite).

Here is one from Israel issued on July 21, 1965 to publicize the UN International Cooperation Year, initiative of Jawaharlal Nehru, India Prime Minister. It contains the word "Cooperation" in five languages: Hebrew, English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. Don't know why Arabic is omitted although it is an official language of Israel (the name "Israel" is written in Arabic, makes this stamp written in 6 languages):

[Global Administrator]

My guess is this one is going to take the record.

The Republic of South Africa issued a stamp in 1987 (Scott #702) which had the words "The Bible" translated into 76 different languages spoken throughout Africa.

The first is Afrikaans and the last is English. I do recognize three scripts which uses Ethopian characters, and one is in Arabic.



If anyone has some knowledge about African languages, it would be interesting to know what is included on the stamp.

Michael

So no African linguists here?

[Rob K]

Printed Russian address instructions translated multilingually by sender
куда [kuda] — to where/whither
= kuda [Cyrillic transliterated to Latin/Roman alphabet]
Esperanto: kien — to where/whither
German: wohin — to where/whither
Spanish: aquí — here (mistake, should be adónde

кому [komu] — to whom
= komu [Cyrillic transliterated to Latin/Roman alphabet]
Esperanto: al kiu — to whom
German: wem — to whom
French: où — where (mistake, should be à qui
[/centre]

I think both of those last lines are French, and they simply transposed "où" and "à qui".

[Wolfgang]

10 different languages on this German Christmas stamp.
This is the scarce issue with some spelling mistakes.
Easy to see with the capital letter "Jul". Regular stamp has lower case "jul" writing.

[RogerE]

Thanks Wolfgang.
Here's another example of the German 2016 Christmas stamp error, and some further information:

Germany, 2016: Christmas ornament, self-adhesive
The error version (capitals J and K instead of lower case j and k)
Acknowledgement: current eBay listing

Germany, 2016: Christmas ornament, sheet stamp
Acknowledgement: current eBay listing
Bonn first day cancel, 30 Nov 2016 (Mi 3269)

Text Languages:
Frohe Weinachten — German
Merry Christmas — English
Joyeux Noël — French
Buon Natale — Italian
Glædelig jul ["Jul"] — Danish
Vrolijk kerstfeest ["Kerstfeest"] — Dutch
Feliz Navidad — Spanish
Wesołych Świąt — Polish
Veselé Vánoce — Czech
Mutlu Noeller — Turkish

/RogerE

[RogerE]

Thanks for reviving this nice old thread.

This stamp is part of a set (Scott 647-658, SG 753-764) in which each of the remaining stamps depicts the emblem of one of the above-mentioned Republics. Now an interesting and little known detail. The stamp depicting the Belorussian Republic emblem actually carries the slogan "Proletarians of the world, unite" inscribed in 4 different languages on its ribbons:
.

.

The languages are those of the main ethnic groups in the Republic: Belorussian, Russian, Yiddish and Polish:
.

[/centre]The Yiddish on this stamp says:
"Proletarier von alle länder, vereinigt sich" (Proletarians from all countries, unite).
...

The Esperanto Connection
.
Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof was born in Białystok. The four languages on the Belorussian Republic emblem were the motivation for Dr Zamenhof to set about creating a universal language in the 1870s. He wished to produce a "universal" language that would overcome the linguistic and cultural barriers he saw dividing the people in his region, and he felt that it would be a practical vehicle for promoting understanding and world peace. Hence the active hope encoded into the name Esperanto.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/esperanto-the-most-successful-made-up-language/gfep0w7pg

Białystok
.

Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Uplands of the Podlachian Plain on the banks of the Biała River.

Over the course of the last 200 years, the city has been the capital of numerous administrative divisions of a number of countries or occupying powers:

• Capital of the New East Prussia province, Kingdom of Prussia from 1795 to 1807.
• Capital of the Belostok Oblast, Russian Empire from 1807 to 1842.
• Capital of the Belostok Province of the Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire from 1842 to 1915.
• Capital of the Bialystok-Grodno District of the German-controlled territory of Ober-Ost during World War I (1915–1918).
• Capital of the Białystok Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic from 1919 to 1939.
• During World War II it was the capital of the Belastok Voblast, Byelorussian SSR from 1939 to 1941 and 1944 to 1945.
• Capital of Bezirk Białystok during the World War II occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944.
• Capital of the Białystok Voivodeship, People's Republic of Poland from 1945 to 1999.
Białystok was, from 1945 until 1975, the capital city of the Białystok Voivodeship. After the 1975 administrative reorganisation of the People's Republic of Poland, the city was the capital of the smaller Białystok Voivodeship which lasted until 1998. Since 1999 it has been the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, Republic of Poland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bia%C5%82ystok
.

/RogerE

[Eli]

The word "Peace" in five different languages: Russian, English, German, French and Spanish, on a stamp issued by East Germany on April 16, 1974. It commemorates the 25th anniversary of the 1st World Peace Congress 1949:

[Global Administrator]

No link offered, but selling for over $A5,500 with inward GST. I've sold many of these ''Kerstfest'' errors - VERY popular. My buyers will be delighted, as my selling price was a QUARTER that!

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/165488142687

[Eli]

[/URL]

I have looked into how to say red cross in the various languages that you've previously specified and listed as follows:

29. Persian? – صلیب سرخ (not quite the same as on stamp)

So the ones I am not so sure about are Korean, Somali and Persian as they do differ quite a bit to the stamp.

Thanks

ASPS_StampIT, many thanks for your efforts in translating the many languages on this stamp. The Persian inscription on the stamp reads: جمعیت شیر و خورشید سرخ ایران means: Red Lion and Sun Society of Iran.

[RogerE]

Eli has just added this translation of inscription 29 on the Danish Red Cross commemorative:

"ASPS_StampIT, many thanks for your efforts in translating the many languages on this stamp. The Persian inscription on the stamp reads: جمعیت شیر و خورشید سرخ ایران means: Red Lion and Sun Society of Iran."
.

The transliterated text given by Eli is in the usual style of Arabic script (exactly the same as Google Translate gives us), whereas the style on the Danish stamp is the characteristic script style usually seen used in Persian/Farsi sources.

[Persian/Farsi and Arabic] use the same alphabet. The Arabic alphabet is the basis for multiple languages across the Arabian Peninsula, Middle East, North Africa, and as far east as India and western China. Languages that use the Arabic alphabet include Farsi, Kurdish, Pashto, Somali, and Urdu. Even Turkish was written in the Arabic alphabet up until 1928 when Turkey passed a law banning the use of the Arabic alphabet for writing. Each of these languages has some variation in lettering — but they all share the same foundation...

Farsi and Arabic are even more different than Portuguese and French because they don’t have a language group in common. Portuguese and French are both Latin, or Romance, languages while Farsi and Arabic represent two different language groups: Iranian and Semitic, respectively. In fact, Farsi is not only in a separate language group from Arabic but it’s also in a separate language family... Arabic is in the Afro-Asiatic family while Farsi is in the Indo-European family.

https://www.lingualinx.com/blog/farsi-vs-arabic-comparision
.

A pair of Persian/Iranian Lion and Sun revenues/cinderellas, currently on eBay:

.

.

___________
.

Incidentally, the corresponding organisation in the Maldives is the Maldivian Red Crescent. The Maldivian/Dhivehi script (Thaana) has recently been added to Google Translate.

.

/RogerE

[jps55liquefy]

Stamp Pane from UN United Nations New York World Languages Sergio Baradat 21 February 2019

Stamp Pane from UN United Nations Geneva World Languages Sergio Baradat 21 February 2019

Stamp Pane from UN United Nations Vienna World Languages Sergio Baradat 21 February 2019

[OldDuffer1]

The word "Peace" in five different languages: Russian, English, German, French and Spanish, on a stamp issued by East Germany on April 16, 1974. It commemorates the 25th anniversary of the 1st World Peace Congress 1949:

I actually have this stamp and FDC (why???)

DDR Mi1946 (1974)

It is interesting to note that apparently among the U.S. delegates to the original conference were one Charles Chaplin, Paul Robeson and Artie Shaw (jazz musician)!