Name the language / alphabet

This is a design for a coin meant to commemorate 9th September 2009 (9-9-9) which has 27 versions of the number/numeral 9 on it in different alphabets and languages.

09/09/09 coin design

Can you identify the alphabets and languages?

Comments (22)

NikkiAugust 9th, 2009 at 11:20 am

1 is the chinese/japanese character, 2 is korean/hangul, 3 could be georgian, 4 is armenian, 5 looks like bengali, 6 could perhaps be braille, 7 is possibly thai, 8 is arabic and 9 is tamil

renato figueiredoAugust 9th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

1 chinese, 2 korean, 3 no idea, 4 armenian, 5 no idea, 6 sure braile, 7 sanskrit, 8 arabic, 9 it looks like tamil.

LBAugust 9th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

3 is Hebrew.

DaydreamerAugust 9th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

5 = Bengali; 7 = Devanagari; 17 = Oriya; 22 = Binar Code (or whatever it is called); 25 = Gujarati; 26 = Roman;

DaydreamerAugust 9th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

Another try: 15 = Sanskrit; 16 = Amharic(?) 17 could also be Tibetan;

DaydreamerAugust 9th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

My last try: 10 = Javanese (?)

RoyAugust 9th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

3 is the ninth Hebrew letter Tet. Hebrew letters can represent numbers.

RyanAugust 9th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

16 is clearly theta, the greek numeral for nine.

RodrigoAugust 9th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

22 is binary
25 ¿Hebrew?
26 Roman

DaydreamerAugust 9th, 2009 at 7:29 pm

Back for my final attempt: 12 = Telugu; 23 = Sumerian ? (since it loooks like cuneiform)

praseAugust 9th, 2009 at 8:39 pm

20 can be Mayan, 14 is octal.

DaydreamerAugust 9th, 2009 at 9:33 pm

I can’t resist: 24 = Sinhalese; 22 = Morse code; 21 = Some Secret Script (since it can hardly be seen)

SpeedAugust 10th, 2009 at 3:07 am

20 = Mayan?

AbbieAugust 10th, 2009 at 5:14 am

11 is defiantly Thai, and 9 looks like a common variation of it.

AbbieAugust 10th, 2009 at 5:16 am

By 9 I mean #7. It’s defiantly the 9 on my Thai wall clock, but the #11 9 is more common.

VentegoAugust 10th, 2009 at 6:56 am

In truth, immediately i didn’t understand the essence. But after re-reading all at once became clear.

ArakunAugust 10th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

1 hanzi, 2 hangeul (“ahop”), 3 hebrew, 4 armenian, 5 bengali, 6 braille, 7 ???, 8 arabic, 9 tamil, 10 tagalog/baybayin (“siyám”), 11 thai, 12 telugu, 13 ???, 14 ???, 15 devanagari, 16 greek, 17 tibetan, 18 cherokee (“sonela”), 19 ???, 20 aegean, 21 ???, 22 binary, 23 limbu, 24 sinhala, 25 gujarati, 26 roman, 27 balinese

MichaelAugust 11th, 2009 at 6:47 am

I’m wondering why the Korean is written out in the Hangeul alphabet. It seems strange since the others are all the numerals, but that one’s written out. I guess is the Cherokee one written out too?

MichaelAugust 11th, 2009 at 6:48 am

Also is Egyptian hieroglyph there?

ArakunAugust 11th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

@Michael: Yes, the Hangeul, Cherokee and Tagalog ones are spelled out.

ArakunAugust 11th, 2009 at 4:05 pm

Why didn’t I notice before? 7 is essentially the same sign as 11, just rotated 90° counter clockwise. Odd that they would include both forms.

SimonAugust 15th, 2009 at 6:02 pm

Here are the answers I’ve come up with:

1 Hanzi, 2 Hangeul, 3 Hebrew, 4 Armenian, 5 Bengali, 6 Braille, 7 Khmer, 8 Arabic, 9 Tamil, 10 Baybayin / Tagalog, 11 Thai, 12 Telugu, 13 Meroïtic, 14, Octal, 15 Devanagari, 16 Greek, 17 Tibetan, 18 Cherokee, 19 ??, 20 Aegean, 21 ??, 22 Binary, 23 Limbu, 24 Sinhala, 25 Gujarati, 26 Roman, 27 Balinese.