What countries have bi, tri (or even more?!) lingual signs?

[Fenlander]

Lincolnshire Police's Xmas drink drive campaign featured signs in 3 languages last year, Latvian, Lithuanan & Polish.

[brombeer]

If the Flemish are to be told they can't use Rijsel, or the French can't use Sarrebruck, why can the English still use Munich? (Apart from the obvious answer that there aren't any road signs in England pointing to Munich.)

I do not see this debate as a matter of "can't use" or "should exonyms die out" - everyone should be at complete liberty to use whatever exonyms he or she prefers. But signposting is a form of mass communication aimed at a very diverse international audience. To add to insult, you have to do it in the specific context of motorway signs, which typically contain some six references that need to be understood within seconds while keeping an eye on the road. It is a very specific setting that is a ground to communicate in a manner that differs from what you do in general speech. The Dutch have been doing this for decades now in selected places (endonyms on signs and at train stations, English exonyms at Schiphol airport) and you cannot see it changing everyday speech by the slightest bit.

From that starting point, it is a conclusion quickly drawn. Flemish people invariably understand Liège and Lille, Walloon people invariably understand Antwerpen and Aachen, etc. But by signposting those endonyms, you reach foreigners much better. The number of motorists picking up the message will increase, as you still reach the vast majority of locals AND also catch the foreigners. But this type of approach does require you to step away from local pride arguments such as 'this is Flanders and the people have a right not to be bothered with French' or 'we are the French government and we will not communicate in any other language'.

[J N Winkler]

There is some bilingual signing in the US, generally near the Mexican and Canadian borders:





However, there is no general policy governing bilingual signing in the US as a whole and some state DOTs discourage it for message loading reasons.

[Lewandowski]

Are there examples in the US of foreign destinations being signed, for example, Vancouver?

[J N Winkler]

Are there examples in the US of foreign destinations being signed, for example, Vancouver?

Yes, but it varies from state to state and, as a rule, there are far fewer attempts to sign distances to destinations in Mexico, let alone to use them as control points.

A few examples:

* Vancouver, BC is a designated control city for I-5 in Washington state. (WSDOT guidance calls for it to be rendered pedantically on signs as "Vancouver B.C." partly to differentiate it from Vancouver, Washington, which is on the Columbia River opposite Portland.)

* Two-lane roads elsewhere in Washington usually show distances to Canadian cities in miles when they approach the border.

* In North Dakota, Winnipeg is a designated control city on I-29 northbound.

* In Michigan, at least in the Detroit area, "Canada" is often signed instead of specific cities like Windsor, Sarnia, etc.

* In New York and New England, Montréal is a designated control city on I-87 and I-89. The Ministère des Transports du Québec returns the favor north of the border, complete with Interstate shields that typically use Series E Modified (as on the somewhat similar-looking autoroute shields) instead of the more usual Series C or D.

[Lewandowski]

Many thanks. Is there any reason to your knowledge why Mexican destinations aren't favoured?

[Comstock]

Funnily enough I saw a tri lingual sign today whilst exploring my own back yard on the old A453

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8& ... 73,,1,5.81

[Vierwielen]

Does Switzerland have any trilingual (German / French / Italian) signs?

Three of the five destinations on this roadsign in Basle are outside Switzerland. A fourth (Euro Airport) is actually in France, but the land itself has been leased to the Swiss for the Basle/Mulhouse/Freiburg airport.

Note that in Switzerland, motorways are denoted by green signs and "primary roads" by blue signs.

[mikewhitcombe]

There are five languages on this sign in England.

At least two of which have spelling mistakes...

[B 67]

A few bilingual signs in Taiwan.

Yield/Give Way sign in Hualien. It's placed well before the intersection too.

[B 67]

No problems finding one's way around with such clear signage. Lucky the traffic jams give you enough time to read them.

[B 67]

Part of a view taken from a high speed train.

[B 67]

And one more.

[mikewhitcombe]

This sign is in South Tyrol (predominantly German-speaking region of Northern Italy) - and is in Ladin (not Latin...), German and Italian:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ardena.jpg

[Bristol]

It's been mentioned before but Israel has trilingual signs: google street view example

Switzerland has the occasional trilingual German/French/English trilingual sign where it may be of use to tourists, for example the "pass open/closed" prism signs (first sign in right column). In fact the second panel is even quad-lingual!

[mikewhitcombe]

Part of a view taken from a high speed train.

PICT0056cr.jpg

Bloody fast shutter speed and a very steady hand in that case!

[B 67]

Part of a view taken from a high speed train.

PICT0056cr.jpg

Bloody fast shutter speed and a very steady hand in that case!

It was shortly after a stop.

[SC2]

Funnily enough I saw a tri lingual sign today whilst exploring my own back yard on the old A453

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8& ... 73,,1,5.81

That's the one I was on about....

Doesn't England have multi lingual "drive on the left" signs at ports?

Yes. If I recall there are some near airports too, such as East Midlands.

[mikewhitcombe]

I've updated the wiki page "Bilingual Sign", as it was in the list of "Articles to Improve"...

http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/inde ... ngual_Sign

[FosseWay]

Doesn't England have multi lingual "drive on the left" signs at ports?

On the way out of Dover on the A2, there are "keep left" signs in English, French, German and Swedish ("Kör till vänster").

The others I can understand, but why Swedish - are there enough Swedes passing through Dover to warrant it?

That does seem an odd choice. I would have though Dutch, Polish or maybe Italian would be more sensible choices for the fourth most common language for incomming drivers.

I've always thought it an odd choice as well, especially at Dover. Back in the days of direct ferry connections with Scandinavia the ferries landed at Harwich, Hull and Newcastle, not Dover.

The failure to choose Polish, which today would be a self-evident choice, can be explained by the fact that those signs have been there for a very long time. They predate the entry of Poland etc. into the EU and possibly even the fall of the Wall.

Clutching at straws here, but could Swedish have been chosen because it is also intelligible by Danes and Norwegians? Even so, for all three nationalities English is a more obvious choice than any of the other Scandinavian languages.