Sunday, December 1, 2013

Creative Guesswork

different asian scripts and how to recognize them

Check this out, someone translated this comic into Chinese!

View mobile version

72 comments:

  1. SolalDecember 1, 2013 at 4:33 PM

    Ha ha I lost it at butts. Note for myself : also works with boobs :)

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 2, 2013 at 1:02 AM

      And balls! We might as well complete the triumvirate

      Delete
  2. RรฉmiDecember 1, 2013 at 8:43 PM

    Can you add a Google+ "+1" button to your site? I'd be glad to like your comics every week :)

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 2, 2013 at 1:05 AM

      I'm glad you enjoy them! Is there no +1 button? That's troubling, I'll have to look into it...thanks!

      Delete
    2. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2014 at 8:06 PM

      Under the share button you can access Google+.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousDecember 2, 2013 at 7:06 AM

    I'm afraid the bottom-right character in the Chinese panel isn't used in Chinese. It seems to be used in Japanese, though. Funny comic, though!

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 2, 2013 at 5:01 PM

      Cool! Thanks for letting me know. I'll change it!

      Delete
    2. frlcsDecember 4, 2013 at 1:34 PM

      the bottom right character ๅ€‰ is a real chinese word, it's the traditional form of ไป“

      Delete
    3. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 5, 2013 at 11:00 AM

      So it's okay as is? Or should I change one of those characters? Now I'm confused!

      Delete
    4. Shurman HDecember 6, 2013 at 7:12 AM

      what he means at the bottom right character is ๅ‡ช not ๅ€‰
      ๅ‡ช is Japanese Kanji (looks like Chinese but created by Japanese, no Chinese uses it)

      Delete
    5. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 6, 2013 at 11:40 AM

      Okay thanks everyone for the input. I replaced the bottom-right character on the Chinese panel - better now?

      Delete
    6. Shurman HDecember 6, 2013 at 1:33 PM

      yup! it looks better. How amazing these Asian languages! lol

      Delete
  4. AnonymousDecember 2, 2013 at 3:44 PM

    Mongolian is now using Cyrillic letters though.

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 2, 2013 at 5:01 PM

      Yeah but traditional Mongolian? All knives.

      Delete
    2. UnknownDecember 3, 2013 at 5:50 PM

      but InnerMongolia is not lol

      Delete
    3. ะœะธะฝะธะน ะฑะปะพะณDecember 4, 2013 at 8:33 AM

      We are still using the script in southMongolia and Mongolia but unofficial in Mongolia :-(. I hope someday we can change the Russian cyrillic.

      Delete
    4. AnonymousDecember 4, 2013 at 6:18 PM

      but it's not raining knives in Mongolia...May be someday rained on somebody..

      Delete
  5. Michael EversonDecember 2, 2013 at 11:34 PM

    A nice analysis.

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  6. AnonymousDecember 4, 2013 at 4:23 AM

    Nice funny post! Greetings from Thailand.
    PS. I like the Vietnamese one with that hat. It's so cute.

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  7. ะœะธะฝะธะน ะฑะปะพะณDecember 4, 2013 at 8:22 AM

    Yeah, some people say that Mongolian script like raining :-)

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  8. MFDecember 4, 2013 at 10:07 PM

    Sinhalese looks like a bunch of elephants.

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  9. AnonymousDecember 5, 2013 at 2:59 AM

    So fun. I like your feeling ^^
    But, I'm Vietnamese and i can't understand almost "Vietnamese's letters" your write :v

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    1. UnknownDecember 6, 2013 at 6:27 AM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  10. UnknownDecember 5, 2013 at 6:42 AM

    Haha loved it!

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  11. UnknownDecember 5, 2013 at 9:17 AM

    so our language is super sexy. xD

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  12. UnknownDecember 5, 2013 at 10:13 AM

    lol !! love the way u see our language... butts !!!!! haha.... proud of our sexy language :P

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  13. Cรก BasaDecember 5, 2013 at 2:42 PM

    really love this. lol Vietnamese tรดi rแบฅt thรญch truyแป‡n nร y =))) but should I use "truyแป‡n" since is this really a story? lol anyway you're so creative!!! Chinese is buildings attacked by UFOs HAHAHA by the way have you seen nรณn lรก? A woman wearing it is like how we write : รŠ (Hey) lol. I laughed at the Hangul being making fun of me, you're so interesting!!! I had to get all the way here to see more of your works!!! And burmese? butts? hahaha lolllll

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  14. CurtDecember 5, 2013 at 4:54 PM

    Tamil! Please add Tamil! (makes me think I'm on an intergalactic ship, but have lost my glasses)

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  15. JeffDecember 5, 2013 at 11:49 PM

    As far as I can tell the Hindi word is nonsense. Still, I laughed my Burmese off. If you do South Indian scripts, Malayalam looks like marbles, and it actually sounds like they have marbles in their mouths!

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  16. UnknownDecember 6, 2013 at 5:15 AM

    butts and boobs ....... :P our mother language

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  17. windigoDecember 6, 2013 at 12:00 PM

    Good one. Cheers!!! Never knew that I've been writing boobs and butts all my life.

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  18. AnonymousDecember 6, 2013 at 12:34 PM

    ေแ€€ာแ€„္းေแ€›ာ..แ€แ€„္แ€…ားแ€်แ€€္แ€€ေแ€ာ့แ€œแ€”္แ€‘ြแ€€္ေแ€”แ€ာแ€•ဲ...

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 6, 2013 at 1:52 PM

      Google translate doesn't have Burmese unfortunately, so I'm going to guess that your sentence means "butts butts, butts butts boobs."

      In which case, I agree!

      Delete
    2. UnknownAugust 4, 2015 at 2:14 PM

      Google Translator now support Burmese,
      And it says :
      "Good luck --------------(INAUDIBLE)"

      Delete
    3. Malachi Ray RempenAugust 4, 2015 at 2:17 PM

      XD

      Delete
  19. AnonymousDecember 9, 2013 at 5:03 PM

    Nice work. :D Talk about being the butt of a joke... Butts, boobs and balls. I like being a native speaker of that sexy language. ;)

    PPA (A native Burmese speaker)

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousDecember 9, 2013 at 8:00 PM

    I could not possibly love this comic more.
    ...unless...maybe sometime you could take a stab at describing Baybayin (Filipino)?

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 9, 2013 at 8:03 PM

      Ooh, that's a tough one. Looks to me like someone trying to write upside-down, backwards, and drunk

      Delete
  21. DJanuary 2, 2014 at 5:00 PM

    This is one of your best comics yet! Happy new year!
    ps. I have always described Arabic script as "sheet music", don't you agree? xx

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenJanuary 2, 2014 at 5:03 PM

      Aw thanks! Happy new year to you too! Yes, Arabic is quite pretty...I'll have to do a comic on that next...

      Delete
  22. AnonymousJanuary 5, 2014 at 9:22 PM

    What i want to know is what the Latin alphabet looks like to those who are accustomed to their own scripts. I can't tell because their actually meaning "over-rides" their looks in my brain, having grown up with it.

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenJanuary 5, 2014 at 9:41 PM

      Good question! It probably looks something like this, I would imagine.

      Delete
    2. UnknownJanuary 2, 2015 at 9:24 AM

      Is that Welsh?

      Delete
    3. AnonymousSeptember 3, 2017 at 2:30 PM

      Good question!

      Malachi, when I looked at the probably-Welsh sample the meaning didn't "over-ride" its looks because I don't know Welsh, but my knowledge of what the letters (give or take a few vowels) sound like did "over-ride" its looks.

      The Greek, Roman, and Cyrillic scripts do have some letters in common (and some letters appear in Greek and Cyrillic but not Roman).

      Thing is, at least some amount of printed English still seems to be everywhere so "Roman looks to Cyrillic and Greek readers like Cyrillic and Greek look to Roman users" probably doesn't apply. Maybe if you asked very young readers who are still getting a handle on their own native alphabets and haven't yet also been taught the full Roman alphabet in school...?

      Delete
  23. AnonymousJanuary 17, 2014 at 3:09 PM

    My friend pointed out to me years ago that the best way to identify Korean is that it looks like Japanese but has lots of circles.

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  24. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2014 at 1:25 PM

    เทƒිංเท„เถฝ เถšිเถบเท€เถฑ්เถฑ เถดුเถฝුเท€เถฑ් เถดเถšเถบෙเถš් เถ‰เถฑ්เถฑเท€เถฏ?

    That is Sinhala, primary language used in Sri Lanka.

    http://dhamma.sutta.org/pali-course/DBLM/olcourse/pali/sinhala_cons.gif

    http://www.visiblemantra.org/sutra/ye-dhamma-sinhala.gif

    ReplyDelete
  25. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2014 at 11:53 PM

    Funny post. The Hindi word doesn't mean anything though. At least not in the standard variety. How about เคธเคฎाเคšाเคฐ? (News)

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenFebruary 26, 2014 at 8:33 AM

      Ooh, that's a good one. Actually, the word I believe I looked up on Google Translate was "pooping", but I may have moved some of the letters around to make it look more snake-like...

      Delete
  26. AnonymousApril 4, 2014 at 8:49 PM

    ใ…‹ใ…‹ใ…‹ ๋‚˜์˜ ํ•œ๊ธ€์„ ๋ฐ›์•„๋ผ ์™ธ๊ตญ์ธ์•„

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Malachi Ray RempenApril 5, 2014 at 9:01 AM

      Are you making fun of me ???!!?!

      Delete
    2. popmugelbbubJuly 30, 2014 at 1:33 PM

      that means
      Take my Han'geul polygon pieces clashing, You Foreginers!

      Delete
  27. UnknownApril 18, 2014 at 4:38 AM

    This page was hung up at a little Chinese bakery near my friend's house, that's actually how I discovered your comic! Loved it ever since.

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    1. Malachi Ray RempenApril 18, 2014 at 7:06 PM

      That's the greatest thing I think I've ever heard. If you would be so kind as to take a picture of this Chinese bakery and the comic hanging in there, preferably with an adorable old person in it, I will send you a free copy of Itchy Feet: Volume One.

      You made my week!

      Delete
  28. UnknownAugust 4, 2014 at 6:33 PM

    Do not you think the font is different from?

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  29. UnknownAugust 4, 2014 at 6:42 PM

    i.imgur.com/UC0PUKW.jpg
    hiragana, katakana



    i.imgur.com/Wyc9zr3.jpg
    hiragana - shodo style

    i.imgur.com/7A4u3GM.jpg
    chinases - shufa style

    i.imgur.com/1IyTKq2.jpg
    chinese sub, kor sub, Jpn sub

    ReplyDelete
  30. UnknownAugust 4, 2014 at 6:54 PM

    i.imgur.com/8xZpKHE.jpg
    CHA BOOK TEXT

    i.imgur.com/ackw6C7.jpg
    JPN BOOK TEXT

    i.imgur.com/eJeV5I2.jpg
    KOR BOOK TEXT

    ReplyDelete
  31. UnknownJanuary 30, 2015 at 4:27 PM

    ไฝ ๅฅฝๅ•Š ๆˆ‘ไพ†่‡ชๅฐ็ฃ
    Hello,I come from Taiwan

    ReplyDelete
  32. AnonymousMarch 3, 2015 at 7:45 AM

    http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-Chinese%2C-Japanese%2C-and-Korean-Writing-Apart
    How to Tell Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Writing Apart!

    ReplyDelete
  33. UnknownNovember 2, 2015 at 3:20 AM

    The Korean letters there either means "The ten people who went" or "Liver. Ten people."

    ReplyDelete
  34. themisterholefactFebruary 25, 2016 at 10:49 PM

    Raining knives? That's DIO's heaven.
    MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA

    ReplyDelete
  35. UnknownDecember 4, 2016 at 5:56 PM

    Wow!! This is the comic that introduced me to ItchyFeet.

    I was searching about how to differentiate between Japanese and Chinese and someone posted it as an answer in Quora. Since then, I became a great fan of ur comic and started reading from the current one all the way back till here.

    This has been a great passtime activity and I love it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownDecember 4, 2016 at 5:57 PM

      **introduced ItchyFeet to me

      Delete
    2. Malachi Ray RempenDecember 4, 2016 at 6:00 PM

      This is by far the most popular comic of mine...! Haha.

      Thanks Naveen for the positive feedback!

      Delete
  36. AnonymousSeptember 3, 2017 at 2:33 PM

    Got one more collection of scripts to behold: https://aslfont.github.io/Symbol-Font-For-ASL/ways-to-write.html and they're not all just for one language neither: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/signlanguages.php :)

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  37. AnonymousMay 3, 2019 at 1:30 PM

    I am Burmese,I don't understand what my language means

    ReplyDelete
  38. Yugan, who is a TalovichSeptember 22, 2019 at 4:17 PM

    Not only did somebody translate it into Chinese, but it rhymes, as well!

    ReplyDelete

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