Theme : Alphabets - 03

It took me a while, but finally I was able to find the complete set of the alphabet, used in Colombia.
The alphabet is the same as in all Spanish-speaking countries, and is the standard Latin alphabet, extended with some additional characters.
I could call it the 'Spanish' alphabet, but since the stamps are issued in Colombia, I'll name it the 'Colombian alphabet'.

The set consists of 30 stamps; 29 with characters and one with the message 'Learn to write'.
The set comes in 3 rows of 10 stamps each.

30 stamps on the 'Colombian alphabet'

The first stamp invite us to 'learn to write' and then the A-B-C starts:

A for Águila, B for Búfalo, C for Cóndor

Each of the stamps depicts an animal (except for the W and the X) - there are no animals starting with a W or an X in Spanish, so 'wagon' and 'xilófono' are used.

The 'CH' is considered a separate consonant, written with two letters C+H. The word 'chimpancé' is pronounced the same as in English.
Also the 'LL' is unknown in the English alphabet. In Spain it will be pronounced as 'lj' but in South America 'sj' is a more common way to pronounce the 'LL'.
If the animal is named 'lama' you could say in Spanish : la llama se llama Llama...

N and Ñ

Also typical for the Colombian (Spanish) alphabet is the 'Ñ' which we see in the country name 'España'. Because the 'ñ' is so typical for the alphabet, it is nowadays used on spanish stamps as a security mark.
The 'ñ' is cut out of many stamps as a security mark.

the 'ñ' cut out of the stamp

The full set of 30 stamps has been given a catalogue value of € 30, about $ 1 each.

to be continued...

Theme : Alphabets - 02b Thai alphabet - part 3

Last item on the Thai alphabet stamps is about the border of the second frame.

In the top border, there are 4 diacritics, signs that indicate a tone of a 'vowel'.
Thai is the only tonal language where actual signs (diacritics) are used to indicate tones.

In the left and right border, thai numerals are depicted.

We also see 3 more, older diacritics that are omitted now, but can be found in ancient texts.

2015 Thailand - thai numerals

Each stamp has a face value of 3 bath.
The number you might encounter most is "9"
This number refers to King Adulyadei Bhumibol (rama IX) - the ninth king in the Chakri dynasty).
It is a prefered number for commemorative banknotes (always series '9') too.

Theme : Alphabets - 02b Thai alphabet - part 2

Next to the stamps in the middle of the sheet, some other signs can be found on the border of the frame.
Here we find the 'vowel' marks or other diacritics (tone marks)
In the chart below, we see some of the vowel(combinations) which are for untrained ears, sometimes hard to distinguish from each other.

The tone marks, indicate if it's a high, mid or low tone; a rising or a falling tone ...
Five examples of 'KA', each with their own meaning and pronouciation.

ka ka ka ka ka ...

Same with 'MA' in a different transcript

ma ma ma ma ...

Try saying 'nah-nana-naa-na' and you'll notice that we also pronounce words in different tones.
The meaning of the word however, stays the same most of the time, where in tonal languages the meaning changes.
Or say 'yeah' when you're excited, when in doubt, when replying recultantly... I'm sure you'll notice diffent tones too.

Burmese has 2 tones,
Mandarin has 4 tones,
Thai has 5 tones,
Laotian has 5 or 6 (depends on the dialect/region)
Vietnamese has 6 tones,
Taiwanese has 7 tones,
and Cantonese (Hong Kong for example) has 9 tones ...

what a ca-ca-ca-ca-caphony...

to be continued....

Theme : Alphabets - 02a Thai alphabet - part 1

One of my favourite modern stamps is a set of 44 alphabet stamps, issued by Thailand.
They were all depicted in two sheets, one of 24 and one of 20 stamps, in 2011.

The Thai alphabet has more letters then the latin (western) alphabet, 44 consontants and 15 vowel symbols that can be combined into 28 vowel forms in total.
In addition to this, Thai is a tonal languages, the tone in which a word is pronounced, changes the meaning of the word.

All consonant signs are being displayed in the central stamps.
In the border of the first sheet, we see 24 stamps of 1 baht.
The alphabet starts with Ko/Kai (of Go/Gai) - like the G in the french Garçon.

Sheet 1 : K/G ko/kai to th/thong

Each letter refers to a word, this makes it easier to remember Kai/Gai means 'chicken'

Ko/Kai - Go/Gai  - ก ไก่ (chicken)

Cho/Chang -ช ช้าง (elephant) 

The second sheet continues with N to H

Sheet 2 : N no/nu to H ho/hu

Po/Pla - ป ปลา (fish)

Lo/Ling - ล ลิง (monkey)

The vowels are partly included in the consonant sound - ba/da/fa/ga/ha/ja/ ....
The vowel signs or combinations, alter the original vowel - bo/do/fo/go/ho/jo/ ... and are less important than in western alphabets.
Therefore, this system is called an abugida, in which vowels have a lower status than consonants and its notation is secondary.
Unless a specific vowel is written or diacritics are added, all consonants have their own specific vowel sounds included. MBK* will be read as MoBoKo, unless mentioned otherwise.
*MBK is a shopping mall in Bangkok.

ล - L(o)
◌ิ - i
ง - ng
The ล which is normally 'lo' becomse 'li' because of the ◌ิ which is placed on the proceeding consonant. That's why it should be pronounced as : 'ling' (monkey): ลิง
Each stamp is issued as a 1 baht stamp.
Sending a postcard within Thailand used to be at the rate of 3 baht.
Sending a letter to Europe, you'll need 15 baht, which results in very colourful covers.

to be continued...

Theme : Alphabets - 01

Languages have always been my passion, and much starts with alphabets of course.
Since September is the perfect month to start school, I start my new topic on themed stamps now.
Alphabets and all that is related to that topic.

For the first item, I take you to Hong Kong, China.

In 2006 a sheet with 30 stamps was issued.
26 letters of the Latin alphabet, and 4 repeated letters A, E, I and O.
All stamp show one letter, and they can be combined to a word.

full sheet - gummed

Each stamp shows a partly printed letter and partly a tool in the shape of the non-shown part of the letter. There's no actual relation between the tool and the shown letter (except for the shape).

detail HK sheet 2006

The same sheet was also printed on auto-adhesive paper.
The stamps are identical to the gummed ones, except for the perforation.

full sheet - auto-adhesive

detail HK sheet 2006 auto-adhesive

... this is just the beginning ...