RogerE wrote:There are many ways in which we can take stamps as a starting point
for deepening our knowledge —
geography and
history are two of the
most obvious "areas of knowledge" supported/stimulated by stamp
collecting. Thematic/topical collectors come up with any number of
more specialised subject areas that they learn about in depth through
their stamp collecting.
I am not just talking about
general knowledge, and I'm certainly
not
thinking about "
trivia". I am talking about significant knowledge-in-depth,
with which we can engage the world more deeply and with a heightened
understanding. This is a strong fact-based way in which you can argue
against the prejudiced and dismissive view that stamp collecting is "for
children". (In fact, of course, it's also a great way to stimulate children's
knowledge, as many of us know from early stamp collecting experiences!)
One "area of knowledge" readily supported by stamp collecting, but not so
widely recognised in that context, is
languages. Look at not just the image
on a stamp, but also its inscription. Often that inscription is in a language
different from your (first) language — why not try to use the resources on
hand to engage with that inscription in the language in which it is written?
I
don't mean just reading a catalogue translation of the stamp subject.
I
do mean studying the script and the individual words, what each means,
how each is pronounced, how the inscription works grammatically, and so
on. Learning and practising and remembering (even making some notes in
a notebook!) will provide carry-over benefits when you come to study other
stamps (and covers and postcards) with inscriptions in the same language.
More importantly, you will better understand the culture and the world-view
of the users of that language. (Try thinking about the habit of ignoring the
actual inscription as a "blindspot", and thinking about engaging with the
language as a positive habit of treating others as equals, respecting their
culture, and working at getting better acquainted with it.)
For instance, look at this marginal strip of three Israeli stamps shown in this
thread by
Eli. He selected it ... because it includes a penguin:
Eli wrote:... "Pingi the Penguin", a famous character of the Israeli children TV series
"Lovely Butterfly". The stamp was issued on June 22, 1999:
May I use this strip to model the possibility for language study through stamps?
I hope
Eli will correct any errors that I happen to make!
The Hebrew inscription, in "hand writing", clearly means
Lovely Butterfly. But how
does it work? The hand written inscription is equivalent to the printed text
פרפר נחמד
which you can find using
Google translate to pass from English to Hebrew, at
https://translate.google.com.au/#view=home&op=translate&sl=en&tl=iw
However, when you try "lovely butterfly" you get
פרפר מקסים which only matches half
the target text. You have to try some other possibilities, and "nice butterfly" gives the
desired result. So this already shows that the English words "lovely" and "nice" only
mean
approximately the same as the Hebrew word
נחמד. And the
Google translate
trials show the Hebrew words
נחמד and
מקסים have meanings which only
approximate
the English word "lovely". Incidentally,
Google translate puts its Hebrew text on the
right side of the translation panel, because Hebrew is written
from right to left.
Printed Hebrew texts intended for
experienced readers in fact use "simplified"
spelling, which essentially omits the vowels and leaves just the consonants in
place. In Hebrew the consonants are "big" letters, while the vowels are dots and
dashes added around the consonants — they make for much more complicated
type-setting, and require more spacing between lines. An experienced reader
perceives the "shape" of a word from its consonant pattern, and knows how the
word is pronounced, so doesn't need the vowels as a pronunciation aid. [This
phenomenon is paralleled in English by quickly scanning text such as
It is nxt dfifcilut tx raed xn Egnlsih snetecne wehn txe fnial ltetres axe crocret]
On the other hand, if you are a Hebrew-speaking child learning to read, or beginner
learning to
speak (as well as read) Hebrew, then the vowels are an essential aid to
knowing how a word is pronounced.
Here, the text
פרפר נחמד is in simplified spelling, omitting the vowels.
The full text, with vowels, including the adjective discovered unintentionally, is:
פַּרְפַּר נֶחְמָד
פַּרְפַּר —
parpar, butterfly
נֶחְמָד —
nekhmad, lovely, nice, beautiful, ...
מַקסִים —
maqsim, charming, enchanting, ...
Wikipedia has an article on the printed Hebrew alphabet, and another on the hand
written (cursive) version of the alphabet. The stamps shown have cursive inscriptions
so there is a need to compare the two styles.
First here is
Wikipedia's table of the printed alphabet (arranged from left to right, for
learners used to reading from left to right!):
=
פרפר נחמד
פ – pe ["pay"];
ר – resh ["raysh"];
נ – nun ["noon", but with the vowel short, as in "look"];
ח – khet ["kh" = ch in Scottish "loch"];
מ – mem;
ד – dalet [like Dr Who's "dalek" with t replacing k].
When some consonants occur at the end of a word they are given a special (often
elongated) form; none of those occurs on
Eli's stamps. However, a terminal mem
does occur in
מַקסִים (which we encountered unintentionally).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_alphabet
Finally, here is
Wikipedia's table of the hand-written alphabet (arranged from right to
left, suitable for readers who have developed facility with right-to-left reading):
You can now see that the Lovely Butterfly stamps have the right-to-left cursive
inscription "pe-resh-pe-resh nun-het-mem-dalet" 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive_Hebrew
/RogerE
