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A random cat video that showed up on Facebook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_iSxFL6_Wg

Victor Steinbok, who called this post to my attention, notes:

I immediately noticed an oddity in the Russian signage before even noticing the Chinese. On the right side, the white lettering on top of the building reads "Groceries" (lit. "Products"). The green sign on the left is more unusual. It reads, "Fruit (plural) store beverage (singular) beer//tea candy vodka", followed by Chinese characters. Most of the Chinese signage is under the marquee.

The word that looks really odd is "beverage". Normally, Russian signage would have it in plural (напитки). I'm guessing this must be somewhere in the Russian Far East or possibly anywhere east of Irkutsk (it's a long Chinese border). Alternatively, there's some Chinese presence in Kazakhstan, but then the signage would likely be trilingual.

I think that Victor Steinbok is right when he first says "somewhere in the Russian Far East".  On a yellow vertical Chinese sign with blue lettering that appears for a fleeting instant at the extreme left I see the name of the city of Suifenhe, which lies about 100 miles to the NNW of Vladivostok:

Suifenhe (Chinese: 绥芬河) is a county-level city in southeastern Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, located where the former Chinese Eastern Railway crosses the border with Russia's town of Pogranichny, Primorsky Krai. In January 2014, Suifenhe became the only Chinese city in which trading with Russian Ruble is officially allowed. The city shares its name with the Suifen River, and is under the administration of Mudanjiang Prefecture-level City.

(Wikipedia)

Five Chinese characters at the bottom left of the green overhanging panel above the metal door read:

Lìyà shípǐn tīng 莉娅食品厅 ("Leah Food Hall")

That sounds like a typical name for that part of Heilongjiang province.

Other Chinese characters that are visible on the store indicate that it sells tobacco and offers postal services.

As for the cats, the two gray pusses are lucky to be protected by the windshield from the big guy outside on the hood. 

Selected readings

• "A Northeastern topolectal morpheme without a corresponding character" (6/9/20)
• "Another Northeastern topolectal term without specified characters to write it" (7/22/20)
• "Russian Loans in Northeast and Northwest Mandarin: The Power of Script to Influence Pronunciation" (1/23/11)
• "Manchu loans in northeast Mandarin" (10/7/13)
• "Northeastern Mandarin"
• "Cat phonetics" (3/13/16)
• "Ukrainian at the edge" (10/20/22)

August 13, 2024 @ 7:22 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Bilingualism, Errors

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