At least in Hindi, it seems common to just transliterate the sounds of English words into nagari (I hope the attached photo makes it through), and all sorts of things intended to be international get English names. Maybe the makers of the sign simply assumed that other languages did the same thing?

Antonia

On Fri, 2 Nov 2018 at 19:41, Dan Lusthaus via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

It is curious that the Spanish, French and Chinese offer translations of the title, while the Russian, both arabic-persian script attempts (with slight differences), and the devanagari offer transcriptions of the English title — privileging the English, which is also graphically lifted above the rest, as if the other languages were incapable of expressing the idea ’statue of unity.’ How British.

Dan

On Nov 2, 2018, at 12:11 PM, Tyler Williams via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Palaniappan,

The Perso-Arabic script transliteration in this photo is not even close to being correct, reading "stāt āf unatī".

Best,

TWW

On Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 10:59 AM Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

On a plaque at the site of the statue of Sardar Patel, the name ‘Statue of Unity’ has been transliterated or translated into different languages as shown in the attachment. The terrible rendering in Tamil became widely ridiculed on the Web. Some wondered if it was a photoshopped joke. But BBC Tamil has confirmed that it is true and shows a picture with attempted erasure of the Tamil version after the problem was brought to the attention of the authorities. The designer of the plaque was Larsen & Toubro. Can other language experts comment on the other versions on the plaque?

Thanks

Regards,

Palaniappan

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)

<1540919911451blob.jpg><1540919911451blob.jpg>_______________________________________________

INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)

--

Dr Antonia Ruppel
www.cambridge-sanskrit.org

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)