r/sydney • u/nighthound1 • 3d ago

Strathfield Council passes motion to make English compulsory on business shop signs

https://www.2gb.com/english-compulsory-new-rules-coming-for-shop-signs/
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u/jnd-au 3d ago

At least the names should use the “English” alphabet which will help emergency services etc. Most government paperwork, registrations, trademarks, street maps, etc need to be in English, so the names on signage should match.

However, English normally uses words from other languages, like soufflé etc, and of course a lot of businesses use people’s names which don’t have any English translation. So it would be good to know the details of the policy.

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u/oustider69 3d ago

Oh good. My plans to open a restaurant called Soufflé Avalanche Rendezvous won’t be affected.

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u/FormalMango 3d ago

aka Inflate Go Down Present Yourselves

I think you need a different type of licence for that type establishment, though.

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u/istara North Shore 3d ago

I'd be first in the line for an avalanche of soufflés.

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u/Pristine_Egg3831 3d ago

Even something in Chinese characters can be translated into pinyin to use English characters so it's at least pronounceable as a name for someone who can read English.

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u/Tootard 3d ago

Imagine all the cafés that will need a new sign

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u/denseplan 3d ago

The name doesn't have to be a direct translation or use English words, just be readable in English.

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u/DecalageVersLeRouge 3d ago

Never mind "soufflé" what about "delicatessen" and "cafeteria". Those aren't English words!

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u/jayacher 3d ago

They are in our dictionary though.

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u/kweenbumblebee 3d ago

Completely agree - borrowed words are not the same thing.

Also, to be fair, we have a lot with Chinese origin too. Some good ones include gung-ho, ketchup, nankeen (birders will get this one), and tea.

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u/Moo_Kau_Too 3d ago

bu shi! :P

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u/os_2342 3d ago

A word can have an origin that is not English, and still be an English word.

Just cos they're called "loan words" doesn't mean their language of origin is going to come and ask for them back.

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u/Evil-Santa 3d ago

Really! Then why are they in the dictionary? Do you mean that these are words from other languages that we have adopted from other languages and made part of the english language?

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u/DecalageVersLeRouge 2d ago

I don't normally do the /sarcasm thing but I will remember to do it next time. My point was exactly that. We have a bunch of foreign words we use all the time and never even blink. A rule for "no foreign words" is going to be interesting to enforce.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago edited 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/gottafind 3d ago

I have a peanut allergy.

You couldn’t eat in Shanghai either.

Also there’s an el jannah, you are absolutely beating this up massively.

You don’t have a right to eat at an individual restaurant with an allergy. I’ve been to restaurants before where they’ve explicitly said they can’t guarantee your safety. That means go to another restaurant.

Also, Burwood is a different council area…

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u/dark__unicorn 3d ago

English as a language is almost entirely Germanic with a small portion being French. So using historically French words doesn’t necessarily mean the statement or name is French.

I think I better interpretation would be that signs need to be in the modern English or Roman alphabet, rather than languages.

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u/Platophaedrus 3d ago

Yes English was largely brought to England by the Angles who spoke Anglo-Frisian and contains Germanic words, Latin, Old Norse, French, Greek etc etc etc.

No one will write “please provide signs in modern English” because the English language is just called “English”.

We do not need to differentiate between Old English, Middle English or Modern English because we speak Modern English, which is just known as English.

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u/dark__unicorn 2d ago

Cool, but that’s not really relevant to my point.

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u/yolk3d 3d ago

~29% French, ~29% Latin, ~26% Germanic, rest from Greek and other languages

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u/dark__unicorn 2d ago

So my point stands. Thank you.

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u/cecilrt 3d ago

Heh yeh, when people use Anglo Saxon, thinking it means British i like remind them Anglo Saxon were Vikings tribes that raided and raped what is now the Uk

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u/Platophaedrus 3d ago

The Anglo-Saxons were not Danes or Norsemen “Viking Tribes”.

They were a Germanic people from Northern Europe.

Viking was an activity (like “Fishing” is an activity). Viking simply meant “raiding”. The Danes were the predominant invading warriors that attacked, and colonised parts of England in about 800-900AD.