Possibly Arabic word

September 1, 2024 1:07 PM

Here's a word I can't read. I think it may be in Arabic. Can you read it?

Here's the word.
What language is it in?
Could you please type it in that language?
What does it mean in English?
Thank you!

posted by nouvelle-personne to Writing & Language (9 answers total)

google translate has a camera function
posted by brujita at 1:35 PM on September 1

Running it through Google Translate's camera feature suggests that it's سمانثا , an Arabic transliteration of the name "Samantha". I have no idea if that makes any sense in context, though.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:38 PM on September 1 [1 favorite]

I was able to copy the text directly from the image and paste it into Google Translate; that yielded an English translation of “excuse me “.
posted by sriracha at 1:42 PM on September 1

If it is Arabic, I think Johnny Assay is correct - of course, possible it's a different language using the Arabic script.
posted by coffeecat at 2:18 PM on September 1

Yes, I can read it and it looks like Samantha, the Arabic transliteration of Samantha. It could be also any of the other languages that share the same script (even ones that typically use a different font but may occasionally use this one), since it's not an actual word from the language.
posted by cacao at 2:42 PM on September 1

I think it'd help to know in what context you found the word. It could just as easily be cursive from a language with a Latin alphabet as Arabic to my eyes.
posted by Aleyn at 4:35 PM on September 1

I think the above transliteration should have the first alif after the sin not the mim: sa’-man-ta’ (?).
posted by jabah at 5:25 PM on September 1 [1 favorite]

It's definitely using Arabic script - it doesn't have any other characters that would've immediately twigged it as Farsi or Urdu for example (where they created new characters), so it could very well be any of the languages that use the script. I agree with jabah's transliteration, and it could very well be Samantha.
posted by cendawanita at 8:46 PM on September 1

It looks like سامنتا - I think the Google transcription in Johnny Assay's answer did some autocorrecting, since its version would be a more accurate transcription of Samantha. This one has a long vowel in the first syllable instead of the second, and a 't' instead of a 'th' (which is common in many but not all Arabic dialects; I don't know about other languages that use Arabic script).

When I saw it I wondered if it might be a piece of a necklace or other metal jewelry, because the placement of the dots is a bit unusual and might be due to needing to have all the parts be connected in a single piece.
posted by trig at 2:40 AM on September 2