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

[Comstock]

I notice someone has started a thread about bi lingual signs in Wales.

What other countries have bi-lingual signs? Do any have three or more languages on signs?

[RichardA626]

I notice someone has started a thread about bi lingual signs in Wales.

What other countries have bi-lingual signs? Do any have three or more languages on signs?

My Dad spotted a trilingual sign in San Fransisco, in English, Spanish & Vietmanese.

[michael769]

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

[SC2]

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.

[rhyds]

Loads around the highland tourist routes too

[scragend]

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?

As for other countries, Belgium is known for tying itself up in linguistic knots on its road signs. You may even get trilingual ones in/close to the German-speaking area.

South Africa I think has a different approach, whereby they alternate with one sign in English and the next saying the same thing in Afrikaans.

[vlad]

There are five languages on this sign in England.

On these signs (not in England) there are three languages, in three different alphabets.

[Comstock]

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.

[HPM]

In France some regions have their own language (Britain, Pays Basque, Corse...), and these languages persist with the tradition, so we could find bi-lingual signs, mainly on the input of local signs.
For example in Corse (very often, separatists vandalize names written in French) : https://goo.gl/tvwRMP

For me, the most abusive bi-lingual signs are in Perpignan, next to Spain : all the directional signs are translate in Catalan !

[brombeer]

As for other countries, Belgium is known for tying itself up in linguistic knots on its road signs. You may even get trilingual ones in/close to the German-speaking area. South Africa I think has a different approach, whereby they alternate with one sign in English and the next saying the same thing in Afrikaans.

This is something only done in areas where Afrikaans has prominence, i.e. (Pre-1994) Transvaal and Western Cape. And rightfully so. Given the 9 other official languages in SA, you can almost wait for more, yet I haven't seen any such signs yet. Belgium has no tri-lingual signs as far as I'm aware. Brussels is the sole constituent part of Belgium where all signs are bilingual. Around the fringes of the language areas there are a few municipalities where signs are bilingual Dutch-French or French-German (these are the areas with so-called linguistic facilities for the second-biggest language group). Otherwise, Belgian signs are unilingual Dutch, French or German. And don't expect any courtesy between these. If you're on your way to Mons or Liège and need to cross Flanders, you'll have to prepare yourself for Dutch translations that are not very obvious (Bergen and Luik respectively).

Apart from the parts of France and Belgium already mentioned, bilingual signs are common in parts of Finland (Finnish and Swedish, which has protected minority status in parts of the country), Ireland (Gaelic and English) and Italy (Italian/German in South Tyrol, Italian/French in Aosta). Apart from this, almost every Western European country has some individual warning signs in languages other than the home languages.

Most countries using alphabets other than ours have bilingual signs: local characters and Roman alphabet. While this includes most of China, the Xinjiang region has bilingual signs in Uyghur (written in Arab characters) and Chinese. Inner Mongolia has Monghol and Chinese.

I have seen trilingual signs in three places only: Israel (Hebrew, Arab and English) and Kazakhstan (Kazakh, Russian and English). Makes very full signs, but in Kazakhstan you might be lucky enough to find names of roads or towns that are the same in Russian and Kazakh. And finally, there are a few areas in South Tyrol where Ladin is recognised as an official language. These have trilingual signs Ladin/German/Italian.

[RichardA626]

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

[brombeer]

Switzerland has only a few areas that are actually binlingual. The town of Biel/Bienne jumps to mind. Otherwise, there are no bilingual signs, let alone trilingual (expect probably for some safety-related signs, e.g. around major tunnels). To note that the Rumantsch language isn't signposted, so areas in Graubünden that are bilingual Rumantsch/German just have German signposting.

[Glom]

Usually any country that doesn't use the roman alphabet will have their language and English. For example, UAE, Japan.

[OLD GIT]

South Africa I think has a different approach, whereby they alternate with one sign in English and the next saying the same thing in Afrikaans.

Can't say I noticed this en route to Louis Trichardt, or around Jo'burg, but that was many years ago. Very possible as TV was broadcast in Africaans /English on alternate nights.

[scragend]

Brussels is the sole constituent part of Belgium where all signs are bilingual. Around the fringes of the language areas there are a few municipalities where signs are bilingual Dutch-French or French-German (these are the areas with so-called linguistic facilities for the second-biggest language group). Otherwise, Belgian signs are unilingual Dutch, French or German. And don't expect any courtesy between these. If you're on your way to Mons or Liège and need to cross Flanders, you'll have to prepare yourself for Dutch translations that are not very obvious (Bergen and Luik respectively).

That's what I meant by tying itself up in linguistic knots!

There is a picture somewhere of a massive Belgian road sign that looks a right mess with all the names in more than one language. (It's not in the Brussels region.) I've tried Googling for the picture but I can't find it.

EDIT: This is the one I was thinking of. It's near Mouscron. Granted, some of the places mentioned on the sign are in France.

[scragend]

And I claim this as a trilingual Belgian sign :-

[WHBM]

Usually any country that doesn't use the roman alphabet will have their language and English. For example, UAE, Japan.

I can't recall any such signage in Russia. There's not a lot of road signage in general.

On the Metro in cities, however, in recent years all the station names on the system map, station names on platforms, etc, have appeared with Transliteration (that is, not so much translation but just written in a different alphabet), in a different font/colour written underneath.

[brombeer]

And I claim this as a trilingual Belgian sign :-

Well spotted! Seems to be somewhere on the N608, which leads to Aachen and skirts the border between Flanders and the Walloon region. I suspect that the sign is on the Flemish side, in one of those municipalities offering French language facilities. These have sometimes considered that they should refers to towns abroad in Dutch and French. There are also some signs around there that say Maastricht-Maestricht. In the Walloon region, they stopped signposting Maestricht and Aix-la-Chapelle many years back (though there will be some remnants), but the Flemish believe they owe this type of signs to their French-speaking minorities.

The sign posted near Mouscron is in Wallonia, in an area designated for Dutch language facilities. It leads to horrendous signs.

[HPM]

From France to Belgium, we could find also Belgium names translate in Flemish like this old luminous sign in Lille (1970s):



I would have to see how the Belgium signs evolve if the Walloon region become a new region of France like as what was discussed when Belgium had no government a few years ago.
Belgium signs, especially in Wallonia, are very old, it's very interesting.

A new highway between France (Ardennes), and Wallonia is being built, I'm curious to see the new signs implanted on there !

[brombeer]

Going slightly off-topic, Wallonia has been working on a new style of signage, but despite this new style having been around for ten years or so, you still do not see it an awful lot. That's what you get in an area where signs won't be replaced until they truly fall apart. You can see the new style on my website.

In the French far North, there are indeed bilingual references to many Flemish towns: Gent, Kortrijk, De Panne, Ieper. The French exonym always comes first and in a way you should be glad when there is also Dutch on the sign. This deviates from signs in the North-East of France and in fact Wallonia, where French exonyms for German towns (e.g. Sarrebruck for Saarbrücken, Trèves for Trier and Fribourg-en-Brisgau for Freiburg im Breisgau) have been gradually removed over time. Germany, The Netherlands and many other European countries have also adapted this as the new style of referring to places in different language areas: always the endonym and addition of an exonym only if space permits and motorists could get confused as a result of not knowing the actual name of the town.