What does this inscription say?

June 18, 2007 2:06 PM

I came across this inscription in a small park near my public library yesterday. What does it say?

It was written on the ground. With a stick or... a very precise shoe!...

Here it is: http://what.does.it.say.googlepages.com/

What language is it written in and what does it say? Thanks!

posted by amusem to society & culture (19 comments total)

Your image is broken.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:11 PM on June 18, 2007

I have no answer, but the image shows up fine for me.
posted by vytae at 2:19 PM on June 18, 2007

Your image isn't broken.

The second symbol might be 'zhong' (either 'middle', or 'to hit [a target]')... but I can't tell entirely, because I can't remember the first one.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 2:20 PM on June 18, 2007

I'm perplexed! I can see it. I've tried loading the page on another computer and it works fine.
posted by amusem at 2:20 PM on June 18, 2007

Oh good, thanks... At least it's there...
posted by amusem at 2:23 PM on June 18, 2007

I think it is friend + inside/middle. But I'm not sure what that creates as a combination.
posted by acoutu at 2:25 PM on June 18, 2007

Oh, I read it as Japanese, but it is kanji, so it's probably also Chinese.
posted by acoutu at 2:35 PM on June 18, 2007

This can be read as "tomonaka," which is a Japanese surname. Oddly enough, "nakatomo" (same characters read r2l) is also a Japanese surname.

Not sure if this has any meaning in Chinese.
posted by adamrice at 2:54 PM on June 18, 2007

Lookup 友中... it doesn't seem to be a Chinese word (at least in that online dictionary). You can click through the 'lookup the individual characters' link for definitions of each character. I would guess it's a name.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:55 PM on June 18, 2007

If it's Chinese, the first character is you (friend; companion; friendly; friendship, fraternity; fraternal love, [v] befriend), the second is zhong (middle; central; center; in the midst of; among; within; between, China, Chinese, hit a target, etc.). Even the most thorough online Chinese dictionary I know doesn't show those two characters together.

I see a couple of different explanations. One is that it's part of a saying of some kind. Sometimes people omit characters, shortening things, so if it's a saying it could have been shortened. However, based on the characters - which are a) among the first ones you learn in Chinese class and b) fairly inelegantly written - I would say that the other possibility is a student of Chinese practicing characters. It is certainly something I've done before - picking up a stick and drawing characters to explain something to a friend, for example.
posted by gemmy at 4:19 PM on June 18, 2007

Probably someone writing their name (Japanese surname, as adamrice said). Maybe a kid practicing his characters, or showing a friend how his name is written in the original language.
posted by Lady Li at 5:09 PM on June 18, 2007

Is "You Are Here" a reasonable translation (gemmy &c.)? Just thinking outside the box.
posted by dhartung at 8:15 PM on June 18, 2007

You + center, to me, comes out to "You are my center", or, in other words, "I love you".

WAG! I no no Japanese. I no no Chinese.
posted by Goofyy at 12:28 AM on June 19, 2007

Remember you can read Chinese right to left too. I guess 中友 could be "friend of China" at a slight stretch.
More likely part of someone's name though; I stuck the most common surname Wang on the front and got plenty of hits: 王友中 王中友
posted by Abiezer at 1:17 AM on June 19, 2007

gemmy makes a fair point about the character practice too, on non-proper previewing.
posted by Abiezer at 1:20 AM on June 19, 2007

Also, come to think of it, Zhang is probably the most common surname, not that it matters or I can arsed to look it up. But pedantry demands :D
posted by Abiezer at 2:16 AM on June 19, 2007

The characters are written poorly... I second the notion of a student practicing some common symbols. As far as I know it means nothing.
posted by mateuslee at 10:47 AM on June 19, 2007

I showed it to a native friend, who couldn't come up with a good translation either. Sorry.

dhartung and Goofyy, "you" is the pronunciation, not the translation. Nice try though! ;)
posted by gemmy at 5:34 PM on June 19, 2007

Thanks guys !
posted by amusem at 9:16 PM on June 19, 2007