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 : Tintin (Kuifje) 09

It has been a while again, but today I'm happy to add a new item to my theme collection.

This time, the postal services of the Pricipality of Monaco, issued a stamp on Tintin in 2012.
Besides French, the official language, Italian, Occitan and Monégasque are spoken in Monaco.
The reason for this issue is, that the editor of the Tintin comic books has issued it's third album in Monégasque language.

The album "de schat van Scharlaken Rackham" or "Red Rachham's Treasure" was issued in 1944, as the 12th Tintin album. The story is the second part of the two-part adventure 'The Secret of the Unicorn" (1943) and it's the album where professor Calculus is introduced.

Tintin and Red Rachham's Treasure (1944)

The Monégasque version of the album Red Rachham's Treasure (O Tresoru de Rakamu u Russu), is the third album issued in this language.
Previously also "The secret of the Unicorn (Le Secret de la Licorne)"
and "The Castafiore Emerald (I Ori da Castafiore)" were translated into Monégasque.

Stamp and left hand corner of the sheet (Monaco)

The stamp was issued on November 21, 2012; but the stamp self mention "2013" several times, as can be seen on the left hand corner of the sheet.
Also the micro text under the central image refers to 2013:

issued in 2012 ...

I hope many more translations will follow, and more nice Tintin stamps as well...

Currency Today : India 03

I don't know if size really matters, but as far as the Indian banknotes concerns, there is something to say about their sizes.

First of all, the smaller denominations, 5, 10 and 20 have the same hight.
Same goes for the other notes of 50, 100, 500 and 1000.

The 50 note is a bit smaller then the 20, but from then on, they all increase in lenght.

all banknotes front side

As there is so much to say about Indian banknotes, I had to mention the languages at the back of the notes.
Let's put them next to eachother:

5, 10 and 20 ( 15 languages)

50, 100, 500 and 1000 (15 languages)

If we look at one note in particular, we see 15 languages that are spoken in India.

 

"10 rupees"  in 15 languages

For the die hard fans :

Language 1 2 5 English One Rupee Two Rupees Five Rupees Gujarati એક રૂપિયો બે રૂપિયા પાંચ રૂપિયા Hindi एक रुपया दो रुपये पाँच रुपये Nepali एक रुपियाँ दुई रुपियाँ पाँच रुपियाँ Kannada ಒಂದು ರುಪಾಯಿ ಎರಡು ರೂಪಾಯಿಗಳು ಐದು ರೂಪಾಯಿಗಳು Konkani एक रुपया दोन रुपया पांच रुपया Malayalam ഒരു രൂപ രണ്ടു രൂപ അഞ്ചു രൂപ Marathi एक रुपया दोन रुपये पाच रुपये Assamese এক টকা দুই টকা পাঁচ টকা Sanskrit एकरूप्यकम् द्वे रूप्यके पञ्चरूप्यकाणि Bengali এক টাকা দুই টাকা পাঁচ টাকা Tamil ஒரு ரூபாய் இரண்டு ரூபாய் ஐந்து ரூபாய் Telugu ఒక రూపాయి రెండు రూపాయిలు ఐదు రూపాయిలు Punjabi ਏਕ ਰੁਪਏ ਦੋ ਰੁਪਏ ਪੰਜ ਰੁਪਏ Urdu ایک روپیہ دو روپے پانچ روپے Oriya Language 10 20 50 English Ten Rupees Twenty Rupees Fifty Rupees Gujarati દસ રૂપિયા વીસ રૂપિયા પચાસ રૂપિયા Hindi दस रुपये बीस रुपये पचास रुपये Nepali दश रुपियाँ बीस रुपियाँ पचास रुपियाँ Kannada ಹತ್ತು ರೂಪಾಯಿಗಳು ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು ರೂಪಾಯಿಗಳು ಐವತ್ತು ರೂಪಾಯಿಗಳು Konkani धा रुपया वीस रुपया पन्नास रुपया Malayalam പത്തു രുപ ഇരുപതു രൂപ അൻപതു രൂപ Marathi दहा रुपये वीस रुपये पन्नास रुपये Assamese দহ টকা বিছ টকা পঞ্চাশ টকা Sanskrit दशरूप्यकाणि विंशती रूप्यकाणि पञ्चाशत रूप्यकाणि Bengali দশ টাকা কুড়ি টাকা পঞ্চাশ টাকা Tamil பத்து ரூபாய் இருபது ரூபாய் ஐம்பது ரூபாய் Telugu పది రూపాయిలు ఇరవై రూపాయిలు యాభై రూపాయిలు Punjabi ਦਸ ਰੁਪਏ ਵੀਹ ਰੁਪਏ ਪੰਜਾਹ ਰੁਪਏ Urdu دس روپے بیس روپے پچاس روپے Oriya Language 100 500 1000 English Hundred Rupees Five Hundred Rupees One Thousand Rupees Gujarati સો રૂપિયા પાંચ સો રૂપિયા એક હજાર રૂપિયા Hindi एक सौ रुपये पांच सौ रुपये एक हज़ार रुपये Nepali एक सय रुपियाँ पाँच सय रुपियाँ एक हज़ार रुपियाँ Kannada ನೂರು ರೂಪಾಯಿಗಳು ಐನೂರು ರೂಪಾಯಿಗಳು ಒಂದು ಸಾವಿರ ರೂಪಾಯಿಗಳು Konkani शंभर रुपया पाचशें रुपया एक हज़ार रुपया Malayalam നൂറു രൂപ അഞ്ഞൂറു രൂപ ആയിരം രൂപ Marathi शंभर रुपये पाचशे रुपये एक हजार रुपये Assamese এশ টকা পাঁচশ টকা এক হাজাৰ টকা Sanskrit शतं रूप्यकाणि पञ्चशतं रूप्यकाणि सहस्र रूप्यकाणि Bengali শত টাকা পাঁচশত টাকা এক হাজার টাকা Tamil நூறு ரூபாய் ஐந்நூறு ரூபாய் ஆயிரம் ரூபாய் Telugu నూరు రూపాయిలు ఐదువందల రూపాయిలు వెయ్యి రూపాయిలు Punjabi ਇਕ ਸੋ ਰੁਪਏ ਪੰਜ ਸੋ ਰੁਪਏ ਇਕ ਹਜਾਰ ਰੁਪਏ Urdu ایک سو روپے پانچ سو روپے ایک ہزار روپے Oriya

Finally, to be complete, the word "rupee" is derived from the Sanskrit word रूप्यकम् (rūpyakam)

and means "silver". This same word in Bengali is : টাকা (taka); and 'taka' is the currency in Bangladesh.