Language Log

Sign at Dunhuang, at the western end of the Gansu Corridor in northwestern China, where I did my doctoral research more than half a century ago (there were no signs like this in those days):

Photograph taken in Hong Kong:

[This is a guest post by Scott Mauldin]

I recently visited Marrakesh and was fascinated by the signs that I submit in the attached photographs. Ostensibly these were originally a kind of business sign that artisans and professionals could hang on their businesses or homes to advertise their profession, but they have evolved into something slightly different for touristic consumption as they now sometimes feature the faces of celebrities or even items.

They're interesting in themselves as a cultural item, but if you look closely at the photos the truly fascinating bit are the "errors" and deviations from standard French spelling. These signs are often made by artisans without a formal education in French and sometimes are phonetic renderings that encode Maghrebi French pronunciations.

And no dabbling either (see "Selected readings").

Enigmatic East Asian sign:

From Mark Swofford in Taiwan:

In sending along the photograph below, Geoff Dawson writes:

I find it hard to believe it takes nine characters. Curious as to what they really say.

From a furniture shop in South Melbourne Australia.

From Francis Miller:

With apologies for the glare from the plastic covering, this sign comes from the canteen at Lingnan University in Hong Kong:

Tim Frost found this sign last (southern hemisphere) summer at a lakeside in Argentina, near San Martin de los Andes.

Still more fun (see parts 1 and 2 on Chinglish examples from WeChat).

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More fun with Chinglish examples from WeChat (see part 1 here).

Yantai

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