I am one of those lucky
people whose mother tongue is English, a language in which I can expect to be
understood world-wide. I have only one other language into which I can confidently
switch (French) and a couple in which I can order restaurant meals and check
in at a hotel.
Everyone probably knows
that the old Ottoman Levant was a multilingual society. Not only that, it was a
multi-script society. Look at this wonderful 1891 Invoice and try to identify
the different scripts and languages mobilised by the Constantinople printer
whose identity is provided on the right-hand side. But I doubt Angelidos Frères
have achieved a world-record: I can’t find English anywhere on the Invoice…..
Click on Image to Magnify
Multi-lingualism on
this scale does pose problems. A large business can probably find staff to
cover all the necessary languages; a small business or office might struggle.
And a lot of time will be spent translating and not quite getting it right.
SPOILER ALERT
On the invoice the scripts I can see are Roman, Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, Greek, Armenian, Russian Cyrillic. Yes?
