need help about languages on a Aristocrat instruction

[mr-razor]

Today I´ve received this 1962 "H2" Aristocrat. The instruction is sealed with the Dispenser of 10 Blue Gillette Blades Extra. Does anybody know the 2 other languages exept the english?

 

[GlennConti]

One of them I believe is Finnish. I typed the letters into Google Translate and it says Finnish.

 

[nuclearblast]

One of them I believe is Finnish. I typed the letters into Google Translate and it says Finnish.

Yup, I did that too, says it's Finnish. The other looks Hindi, but I can't be sure obviously. We have a couple members in India though.

 

[Nick_O]

It kinda looks like Arabic. Hindi has the top line that connects all the letters.

This is the world's most up-to-date razor set
Hindi - यह दुनिया की सबसे अप करने की तारीख रेजर सेट है
Arabic - هذا هو الأكثر مجموعة الحلاقة في العالم يصل إلى تاريخ

This is from Google translator and I know that it is notoriously horrible, so it may still be Arabic even thought it doesn't look just like the characters.

 

[nuclearblast]

It kinda looks like Arabic. Hindi has the top line that connects all the letters.

You are probably right, as it is also written from right to left.

 

[mblakele]

Also on the bottom left corner I see "E,Fi,A": English, Finnish, Arabic. Odd combination of languages, and it would be interesting to know why they were printed together.

In full:



And this one is "F,D,G": French, Dutch, German. That seems like a more sensible combination, because they are neighbors.



It would be interesting to know what other combinations are out there. Maybe Italian and Spanish together?

 

[mr-razor]

Also on the bottom left corner I see "E,Fi,A": English, Finnish, Arabic. Odd combination of languages, and it would be interesting to know why they were printed together.

....

And this one is "F,D,G": French, Dutch, German. That seems like a more sensible combination, because they are neighbors.

It would be interesting to know what other combinations are out there. Maybe Italian and Spanish together?

You are my "Sherlock Holmes"

many thanks!

 

[mblakele]

You are my "Sherlock Holmes"

many thanks!

Thank you, Achim, for sharing all these examples for us. Your site is the next best thing to a time machine.

 

[bosseb]

Today I´ve received this 1962 "H2" Aristocrat. The instruction is sealed with the Dispenser of 10 Blue Gillette Blades Extra. Does anybody know the 2 other languages exept the english?

I can confirm the second language to be Finnish. I was born and raised in Finland and I speak the language fluently!

 

[BSAGuy]

Wow. This thread is much cooler than I expected. That is odd to have English, Finnish, and Arabic together. Incredibly nice razor also.

 

[jamesspo]

Also on the bottom left corner I see "E,Fi,A": English, Finnish, Arabic. Odd combination of languages, and it would be interesting to know why they were printed together.

It's tough to say, but maybe it's similar import regulations (or just misc other regulations) for the relevant countries? Of course Gillette would have been exporting from the US, so maybe English was just included because it's so commonly spoken around the world. That would be my guess..some regulatory commonality that might drive making a common production run for those countries.

 

[mr-razor]

It's tough to say, but maybe it's similar import regulations (or just misc other regulations) for the relevant countries? Of course Gillette would have been exporting from the US, so maybe English was just included because it's so commonly spoken around the world. That would be my guess..some regulatory commonality that might drive making a common production run for those countries.

... and this one (printed in U.S.A. 1964) ?

 

[mblakele]

I suspect E,Fi,A was a catch-all. Maybe they had already filled another sheet with It,Po,Sp and maybe another with Dk,No,Se. They needed to cover the next largest markets on their list, plus English as a stopgap for other markets. At the time they probably would have ignored eastern European languages, and maybe Turkish and Greek too. Or there might have been more instruction sheets that we have yet to uncover.

The Japanese instructions are interesting. Today it might make sense to print Chinese, Japanese, and Korean all on one page. Speculating, maybe in 1964 Japan was the only one of those markets worth targeting? GDP per person has changed a lot since then.

Another possibility is that the designers found it difficult to squeeze the kana and kanji enough to fit another language onto the same piece of paper. Might be just me, but I find that Roman letters are easier to shrink without losing legibility.