Multilingual NR sign

[32475]

I walked past this multilingual sign in Deal, Kent this morning. It’s obviously been there for a while but I’m intrigued by the choice and variety of languages. For instance why isn’t Flemish included since the Flemish speaking world is only forty miles or so from here. Also what’s the likelihood of any Norwegians wanting to park there especially those who don’t speak perfectly fluent English?
Any thoughts anyone?

 

[SargeNpton]

I guess that this is aimed at lorry drivers, and that past experience of the transgressors suggests that they will have a smattering of knowledge of at least one of those languages.

 

[greatkingrat]

RON is an odd abbreviation to use, I assume it is Romanian, but ROM or ROU would be more usual.

 

[zwk500]

Specifically on the Flemish point - nearly all Flemish speakers speak perfectly fluent English. In the rare event that they don't, most of them speak French, and for the tiny minority that speak neither English nor French they can make a fairly good stab at the German. Although you'd put Dutch rather than Flemish on the sign.

 

[Gloster]

I would have thought that Italian and Spanish would have come before Norwegian.

 

[zwk500]

Perhaps it's a national policy, and Scotland/Tyne area gets enough Norwegian drivers to warrant inclusion?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It seems Albanian is the language du jour in Kent...

 

[Mcr Warrior]

RON is an odd abbreviation to use, I assume it is Romanian, but ROM or ROU would be more usual.

RON is seemingly the abbreviation for the Romanian currency. It's short for Romanian New Leu which replaced the old Romanian Leu in 2005.

Not quite sure why they've gone with that. Be like using GBP instead of ENG for the sign's English wording.

 

[Class172]

RON is seemingly the abbreviation for the Romanian currency. It's short for Romanian New Leu which replaced the old Romanian Leu in 2005.

Not quite sure why they've gone with that. Be like using GBP instead of ENG for the sign's English wording.

RON does seem a strange choice to me to represent Romanian. It feels like someone has applied the 'logic' of constructing a station CRS code to a language name.

I thought languages were generally abbreviated by a two-letter code, and a quick investigation online would confirm there is an ISO standard for this. It would appear however there are alternative standards where RON is an option however.

 

[zwk500]

Are we 100% sure it's not just a typo?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Are we 100% sure it's not just a typo?

It's quite possible. Yet another sign maker who can't spell!

 

[30907]

GER is odd as well - DEU would make more sense for German-only speakers.
BTW (not a language!) German is a common second language for CZ/SK.

 

[Ediswan]

Do the language codes even need to be there. Many multilingual signs get by without.

 

[zwk500]

Do the language codes even need to be there. Many multilingual signs get by without.

Tbh it looks to me either that there's meant to be flags and somebody's messed up the sign, or when they got the translations back for the sign (with the english-language abbreviations) they just attached it to the order without checking what would be printed.

 

[Parjon]

I bet the abbreviations weren't meant to be printed up. Why have GER next to Germany, for example...

BBC News - E-mail error ends up on road sign

news.bbc.co.uk

 

[61653 HTAFC]

It seems Albanian is the language du jour in Kent...

Beat me to it!

On RON being the abbreviation for Romanian, would "ROM" be some sort of International Standards Organisation abbreviation for Romansch? The ISO is based in Switzerland after all...

 

[Sunil_P]

Da Do Ron Ron Ron
Da Do Ron Ron

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I bet the abbreviations weren't meant to be printed up. Why have GER next to Germany, for example...

BBC News - E-mail error ends up on road sign

news.bbc.co.uk

Agreed. They should use the same codes used on road vehicles, so "D/AT/CH" for German.

 

[zwk500]

Agreed. They should use the same codes used on road vehicles, so "D/AT/CH" for German.

As it's the language, you'd use the language code (DE) not the Country code. Or a flag, as the signs around UK ports do. https://www.google.com/maps/@50.805...4!1sPwy916Lasx07Y3bVkcXIew!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

[AlbertBeale]

RON is an odd abbreviation to use, I assume it is Romanian, but ROM or ROU would be more usual.

Yes - the last language is Romanian - or a good fake done by someone who knows about Romanian orthography!

 

[Neo9320]

It's quite possible. Yet another sign maker who can't spell!

In defence of sign makers, it was probably a typo from NR and the sign maker just didn’t care enough to point out the mistake, or thought that a guy called Ron just spoke a different language.