Name the language

Where might you see the following sign, and what does it mean?

Quiz question 160906

Clues: the sign needs to be rotated to see the writing the right way up (this is how it was sent to me). This alphabet is used to write quite a few of the languages spoken in South Asia

In case you’re wondering why I’m posting this week’s quiz question today rather than yesterday, it’s because I was unable to access this blog yesterday for unknown technical reasons.

22 thoughts on “Name the language

  1. Absolutely it’s devanagari
    but even if i found out whats written .. i dont think i would be able to translate it!!

  2. If is not Hindi, can be Assame, Gujarati, Nepali, Punjabi or Sanskrit. If all is wrong, which is the correct language, please!!!!.

  3. If you ask me, the way it is said, I mean “si-ci-e” sounds like Japanese!
    Anyway if it is not hindi, we have a wide range of choices since most of south asian script are derived from Brahmi! So any language there can be written with devanagari, no?!

  4. cant be assamese. thats written with a variant of the bengali alphabet. devanagari has been extended to encompass all the sounds of the languages of india. but it is not suited for tibetan, thai, hmong, filipino, or other SE asian brahmi scripts.

  5. its either nepali or sanskrit. the others renato mentioned have their own scripts too. if it is a sanskrit based language, then it might be from the root soch or sochna, which according to my hindi dictionary means to brood or think. i think that it is a conjugated form, probably to be thinking or something like that.

  6. the nepali dictionary says sochnu means to think. didnt get results from the sanskrit dictionary. my gues is nepali

  7. It is devanagari…

    It is most likely Hindi
    “Sochi e” means think (of something) or search (for something)
    well to the best of my knowledge, and yes it is conjugated, I think it is the “tu” form but not sure…

  8. If it were hindi, then it’s in the polite “aap” imperative form as far as conjugation goes. The verb ‘sochnaa’ means ‘think’ so this, if it were hindi would mean “Please think!” or perhaps “Be careful” (this is a stretch). But, remember, it isn’t hindi, so i’m lost too! Should we get rid of Punjabi and Gujarati as possibilities, since they use a different form of devanagari? So, im guessing its nepalese. Meaning? I dunno!

  9. Punjabi is written with the Gurmukhi script (brahmi derivative) by Sikhs and Hindus, and Shahmukhi (an extension of the Arabic script similar to Urdu) by muslims. Rarely is it written in devanagari, and if ever, only by punjabis in the Indian state of Haryana. Gujarati is written with the Gujarati script. it was based upon devanagari and is quite similar, but different enough to be a unique script.

  10. I was fairly sure it was Nepali, but it appears I was wrong. It looks like Podolsky has got it. I understand that this sign is part of an ad for IBM that means “Think!”.

  11. Nepali is also written in Devanagari and has the root “soch-” to think, but the suffix -ie ~ -iye is found in Hindi. The corresponding Nepali form is socha.

Comments are closed.