What does this bar of soap say?

January 14, 2013 12:53 PM

My mom has a bar of soap that I probably gave her as a gift several years ago. We're trying to figure out what language, if any, the logo/brandname are in and what it means. It could be mirrored or upside down but it still doesn't look like any character set I recognize. The soap was probably purchased at a fair trade store so it could be from anywhere.
posted by ChrisHartley to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

Khmer/Laotian? Don't know what it says.
posted by taff at 12:59 PM on January 14, 2013

Looks like a slightly weird Hebrew, the first letter at the right looks like a shin/sin, especially with the dot on top.
posted by Melismata at 1:10 PM on January 14, 2013

Best answer: It says "Palm" in Tamil.
posted by hariya at 1:12 PM on January 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I got a bar of soap with the same word on it from Ten Thousand Villages recently. Here's one with the same logo from Ten Thousand village's website, and here's their page about the Palam Rural Center where they bought it from.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:25 PM on January 14, 2013

Response by poster: Wow that was fast. Mystery solved!
posted by ChrisHartley at 1:28 PM on January 14, 2013

Best answer: If I'm not mistaken, the letters on the soap are பாலம் (pālam), rather than பால்ம் (pālm). But I'm not an expert in Tamil, so I'll defer to hariya if he knows more than I do (wouldn't be hard.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:35 PM on January 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Johnny, you are correct, it says Palam which means bridge in Tamil.
posted by hariya at 2:09 PM on January 14, 2013