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Inscription that includes the same text in two or more languages
In
epigraphy , a multilingual inscription is an inscription that includes the same text in two or more languages. A bilingual is an inscription that includes the same text in two languages (or trilingual in the case of three languages, etc.). Multilingual inscriptions are important for the
decipherment of ancient
writing systems , and for the study of ancient languages with small or repetitive
corpora .
Examples
Bilinguals
Important bilinguals include:
the first known
Sumerian -
Akkadian bilingual tablet dating to the reign of
Rimush , circa 2270 BCE.
[1]
[2]
the
Urra=hubullu tablets (c. 2nd millennium BCE;
Babylon ) in
Sumerian and
Akkadian ; one tablet is a Sumerian-
Hurrian bilingual glossary.
the bilingual
Ebla tablets (2500–2250 BCE; Syria) in
Sumerian and
Eblaite
the bilingual
Ugarit Inscriptions (1400–1186 BCE; Syria):
[3]
tablets in Akkadian and Hittite
tablets in Akkadian and
Hieroglyphic Luwian
tablets in Sumerian and Akkadian
tablets in Ugaritic and Akkadian
the
Karatepe Bilingual (8th century BCE; Osmaniye Province, Turkey) in
Phoenician and
Hieroglyphic Luwian
the
Tell el Fakhariya Bilingual Inscription (9th century BCE; Al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria) in
Aramaic and
Akkadian
the
Çineköy inscription (8th century BCE; Adana Province, Turkey) in
Hieroglyphic Luwian and
Phoenician
the
Assyrian lion weights (8th century BCE; Nimrud, Iraq) in
Akkadian (Assyrian dialect, using
cuneiform script) and
Aramaic (using
Phoenician script )
the
Kandahar Edict of Ashoka (3rd century BCE; Afghanistan) in
Ancient Greek and
Aramaic
the
Amathus Bilingual (600 BCE; Cyprus) in
Eteocypriot and
Ancient Greek (
Attic dialect)
the
Idalion bilingual inscription that helped to decipher the
Cypro-Syllabic script
the
Pyrgi Tablets (500 BCE; Lazio, Italy) in
Etruscan and
Phoenician
the
Kaunos Bilingual (330–300 BCE; Turkey), in
Carian and
Ancient Greek
the
Philae obelisk (118 BCE; Egypt), in
Egyptian hieroglyphs and
Ancient Greek
the
Rosetta Stone Series , in
Egyptian (using
Hieroglyphic and
Demotic scripts) and
Ancient Greek ; they allowed the
decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs (especially the last one)
the
Cippi of Melqart (2nd century BCE; Malta) in
Phoenician and
Ancient Greek ; discovered in
Malta in 1694, the key which allowed French scholar
Abbé Barthelemy to
decipher the Phoenician script
the
Punic-Libyan Inscription (146 BCE;
Dougga , Tunisia) in
Libyan and
Punic ; from the Mausoleum of Ateban, now held at the
British Museum , it allowed the decipherment of Libyan
the
Monumentum Ancyranum inscription (14 CE; Ankara, Turkey) in
Latin and
Greek ; it reproduces and translates the Latin inscription of the
Res Gestae Divi Augusti
the
Stele of Serapit (150 CE; Kartli, Tbilisi) in
Ancient Greek and
Armazic (a local variant of Aramaic)
the
Velvikudi inscription (8th century; India) in
Sanskrit and
Tamil
the
Valun tablet (11th century; Cres, Croatia) in Old
Croatian (using
Glagolitic script) and
Latin
the
Muchundi Inscription (13th century; Kozhikode, India) in
Arabic and
Malayalam
the
Kalyani Inscriptions (1479; Bago, Burma) in
Mon and
Pali (using
Burmese script )
The manuscript titled
Relación de las cosas de Yucatán (1566; Spain) shows the
de Landa alphabet (and a bilingual list of words and phrases), written in
Spanish and
Mayan ; it allowed the decipherment of the
Pre-Columbian
Maya script in the mid-20th century.
Trilinguals
Important trilinguals include:
the trilingual Aphek-Antipatris inscription (1550–1200 BCE; Tell Aphek, Israel) in Sumerian, Akkadian and
Canaanite ; it is a lexicon
the trilingual
Ugarit Inscriptions (1400–1186 BCE; Syria):
the
Achaemenid royal inscriptions in
Old Persian ,
Elamite and
Akkadian (
Babylonian dialect); it allowed the
decipherment of cuneiform script
the
Xanthos Obelisk (500 BCE; Xanthos, Turkey) in
Ancient Greek ,
Lycian and
Milyan
the
Van Fortress inscription (5th century BCE; Van, Turkey) in
Old Persian ,
Akkadian (
Babylonian dialect), and
Elamite ; it allowed the decipherment of Old Persian.
the
Letoon trilingual (358–336 BCE; Turkey), in standard
Lycian or Lycian A,
Ancient Greek and
Aramaic
the
Ezana Stone (356 CE; Aksum, Ethiopia) in
Ge'ez ,
Sabaean and
Ancient Greek
the
Monumentum Adulitanum (3rd century CE; Adulis, Eritrea) in
Ge'ez ,
Sabaean and
Ancient Greek
the trilingual
epitaph for Meliosa (5th–6th century; Tortosa, Spain) in Hebrew, Latin and Greek; the Jewish headstone includes a
pentagram and a five-branched
menorah in the Latin text.
[4]
the
Galle Trilingual Inscription (1409; Southern Province, Sri Lanka) in
Chinese ,
Tamil and
Persian
the
Yongning Temple Stele (1413; Tyr, Russia) in
Chinese ,
Mongolian and
Jurchen ; see below .
the
Shwezigon Pagoda Bell Inscription (1557; Bagan, Burma) in
Burmese ,
Mon and
Pali
Quadrilinguals
Important quadrilinguals include:
the quadrilingual
Ugarit Inscription (c. 14th century BC; Syria) in
Sumerian ,
Akkadian ,
Hurrian and
Ugaritic .
[3]
the
Myazedi inscription (1113; Bagan, Burma) in
Burmese ,
Pyu ,
Mon and
Pali ; it allowed the decipherment of Pyu.
the
Yongning Temple Stele (1413, Tyr, Russia) in
Chinese (using
Traditional characters),
Jurchen ,
Mongolian (using
Mongolian script ) and
Classical Tibetan ; the Buddhist
mantra
Om mani padme hum is transcribed from Sanskrit using 4 scripts arranged vertically on sides, and there is another Chinese text engraved on the front with abbreviated Mongolian & Jurchen translations on the back.
Inscriptions in five or more languages
Important examples in five or more languages include:
the
Sawlumin inscription (1053–1080; Myittha Township, Burma) in
Burmese ,
Pyu ,
Mon ,
Pali and
Sanskrit (or
Tai-Yuan , Gon (Khun or Kengtung) Shan; in
Devanagari script)
the
Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass inscriptions (1342–1345; Beijing, China) in
Sanskrit (using the Tibetan variant of
Ranjana script called
Lanydza ),
Classical Tibetan ,
Mongolian (using
'Phags-pa script ),
Old Uyghur (using
Old Uyghur script ),
Chinese (using
Traditional characters) and
Tangut ; it engraves two different Buddhist
dharani -sutras transcriptions from Sanskrit using 6 scripts, another text ("Record of Merits in the Construction of the Pagoda") in 5 languages (without Sanskrit version), and a Chinese & Tangut summary of one dharani-sutra.
the
Stele of Sulaiman (1348; Gansu, China) in Sanskrit, Classical Tibetan, Mongolian, Old Uyghur, Chinese and Tangut (like the inscriptions at Juyong Pass); the Buddhist
mantra
Om mani padme hum is transcribed from Sanskrit using 6 scripts (last 4 arranged vertically), below another Chinese engraving.
Modern examples
Notable modern examples include:
the
cornerstone of the
UN headquarters (1949; New York, USA) in English,
French , Chinese (using Traditional characters), Russian and Spanish; the text "
United Nations " in each official language and "
MCMXLIX " (the year in
Roman numerals ) are etched on stone.
[5]
Peace poles (since 1955; around the world), displaying each one the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in multiple languages (4–16 each one)
the
Georgia Guidestones (1980, Elbert County, Georgia, USA), with two multilingual inscriptions
a short message at the top in four ancient languages, i.e., in
Akkadian (Babylonian dialect; using
cuneiform script),
Ancient Greek ,
Sanskrit (using
Devanagari script) and
Egyptian (using
Hieroglyphic script)
the ten guidelines on the slabs in eight modern languages, i.e., in
English ,
Spanish ,
Swahili (using
Latin script ),
Hindi (using
Devanagari script),
Hebrew ,
Arabic ,
Chinese (using
Traditional characters) and
Russian (using
Cyrillic script ).
The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948; Paris, France) was originally written in English and French. In 2009, it became the most translated document in the world (370 languages and dialects).
[6] Unicode stores 481 translations as of November 2021.
[7]
See also
References
^ Thureau-Dangin, F. (1911). "Notes assyriologiques" [Assyriological notes]. Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale (in French). 8 (3): 138–141.
JSTOR
23284567 .
^
"tablette" . Louvre Collections . Retrieved 2021-11-01 .
^
a
b
c Meyers, Eric M., ed. (1997). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East . New York: Oxford University Press.
^ Noy, David (1993). Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe . Vol. 1: Italy (Excluding the City of Rome), Spain and Gaul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 247–249.
^
"Where is the Cornerstone of the UN Headquarters in New York?" . Dag Hammarskjöld Library . Retrieved 2021-11-01 .
^
"Most Translated Document" . Guinness World Records . Retrieved 2021-11-01 .
^
"Translations" . UDHR In Unicode . Retrieved 2021-11-01 .
External links