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SearchResearch Challenge (11/23/22): How to read other scripts and languages?

Dan Russell • November 23, 2022
 SearchReSearch
Republished with permission from SearchReSearch
SearchResearch Challenge (11/23/22): How to read other scripts and languages? Dan Russell

I'm never one to turn down an SRS opportunity...


As you can imagine, in the back pocket of my mind I've got 4 or 5 SearchResearch Challenges queued up and ready to go, questing ever onward bringing you the tidbits of knowledge we all need in our searching lives.

But every so often, a chance comment tilts the universe in a slightly different direction by pointing out an opportunity for a new SRS topic.

In a comment this week, Mathlady wrote that "I also encountered the problem of needing to translate signage in an unfamiliar language using an alphabet unknown to me. So I started wondering how to use Google Translate with a different alphabet..."

Excellent question.

This is a great chance to talk about how to do exactly that--read in writing systems (what the pros call "orthographies") that you don't recognize. In some cases (such as Arabic), I can't even recognize the letter boundaries.

Thanks, Mathlady, for the chance to pose a couple of interesting and potentially tricky Challenges:

1. For each of these images below: What is the language? What is the translation of the text?


A.


B.


C.

D.





As always, be sure to tell us how you did the translation. (Did you find a friend? Or did you use an app to do this for you?) And, as Mathlady points out, how did you enter the text to do your search???

I'll tell you how I did this next week--but in the meantime, have a great American Thanksgiving! روز شکرگزاری or ਧੰਨਵਾਦੀ or Þakkargjörð... or... fill in your own orthography here!

Search on!





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About the Author

Dan RussellDan Russell

I study the way people search and research. I guess that makes me an anthropologist of search. While I work at Google, my blog and G+ posts reflects my own thoughts and not those of my employer. I am FIA's Future-ist in Residence. More »

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