And no trip would be complete without a selection of the most curious and typo-riddled signs I could find.
So without further ado, I present you with “the most curious and typo-riddled signs” of the south of Chile and Argentina. Now, with snarky commentary!
Starting at the beginning of the trip, in Puerto Varas, we found that a guy named Taylor makes tours. As you can see, there are Taylor made tours. I wonder what he likes, that Taylor, and what kind of tours he makes. Or made. The sign isn’t clear on whether this activity continues into the present, or if it’s something he used to do, but doesn’t anymore.
Then we have handmade crafts for Chilean hands. Now I have not done a complete study on how Chilean hands might differ from other hands, but perhaps these are politically-themed rings (maybe with a Chilean flag?), or gloves with the Fenix miner capsule on them? (pssst, it’s by. por can mean for or by. In this case, it’s by, not for.
Here on a boat in Lago Todos Los Santos, I am beseeched not to traspass. There is a word traspasar in Spanish, and it means to transfer, as in data. I don’t have a USB port, so I figured I was ok.
On another boat, on you’ll forgive me if I don’t remember what lake, because all this boat bus boat bus boat bus got awfully repetitive, it is requested that I not throw trash to the lake. Here lakey lakey, are you ready? I’m going to throw you some trash! As it happens, I couldn’t even get the lake’s attention, it didn’t seem to be in the mood for playing catch, so we didn’t get to try out not heeding the sign. (pssst, its into the lake, not to the lake).
Now we’re in on dry land in Argentina, where there aren’t so much typos as uh-ohs, as in that means something else where I’m from.
And so I present to you the following, an organization called S.C.U.M., which I don’t care what they do and how many free t-shirts I get, I’m not playing.
And another one which will will be a good time to point out the Spanish SMS speak for “no comment” which is 5mentario. (sin comentario)
And then, coming back to Chile, this time in Castro, we have the mysteriously spelled ajente. The word for agent is agente, and I thought it always had been, but what do I know about Spanish orthography? What I really enjoy about this word is that it sounds like a person who works for you (agente) but who you really don’t have any contact with (ajeno, alien to you). Or an agente who really likes his absinthe (ajenjo). And it’s forged metal, so there’s probably another ajente out there, too. We could number them. Ajente 005, 005, 007. Oh wait, that’s already been done.
One of my favorite things about traveling is finding those nuances in language. Thanks for the fun post!
The last one is probably very old, when things were spelled different.
thanks for commenting JoAnna. It's always a ripe field for exploitation, and fun snark, which is always the best part.
Sharon, I'm sure you're right, but it was surprising. English has undergone several important spelling changes, and only recently has standardized (ish) spelling, but I don't think I knew that about Spanish. I like to think he really liked his ajenjo. 🙂
As Sharon says, that´s really old Spanish spelling, when G had only one sound (as in gato), and instead of U people used V.
I was going to say the same thing as Sharon. At the UChile campus it says "Facultad de Injenieria" on an old building.
The Mr. Cock one made me laugh because I'm 5.
I remember when I had to work with colonial documents. Not only the handwriting was nearly unintelligible, but the spelling was so off I could barely understand what I was reading.
Me encantan tus comentarios sobre el lenguaje…
No me puedo hacer cargo sobre los problemas sobre como los chilenos escribimos y "percibimos" el inglés… pero si puedo hacerme cargo sobre el "ajente"… o "injenieria", o incluso "testo" (por texto)..
Ello tiene que ver con la "ortografía chilena"… Una lucha intelectual del siglo XIX que buscaba que las colonias americanas no sólo fueran independientes de España políticamente, sino también culturalmente, sacudiéndose el yugo de la Real Academia Española y sus reglas, creando reglas nuevas acordes al habla de los americanos… en virtud de ello, Chile tuvo una ortografía propia entre 1844 y 1927…
Te dejo unos links para que los ojees
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortograf%C3%ADa_de_Bello
http://blog.lengua-e.com/2009/la-ortografia-chilena/
http://congresosdelalengua.es/cartagena/articulos/carbonell_jose.htm
Notable César, te pasaste! Como aseguro, no soy nada de experta en cuanto a la ortografía de la maravilla que es el español, el castellano ni el chileno. Pues gracias por dejar tu comentario a ponernos todos a la fecha con respeto a lo mismo. 🙂
interesting selection…
Beautiful pictures, I really like!