Cover With Asian? Language - Could Someone Identify & Translate?

:)




Extraordinary Bobby,
how did you find this? Could be very useful for Aussies.

Hi Rod,

Thank you - Sandwell Street for sure

If you look at google maps (or this: http://surry-hills-nsw.street-map.n...sandwell-st/)
the little road running between Sandwell and Fitzroy Streets is.....Farnell Street

As a small aside, the 1887 Sands Directory has no listings for even numbered houses in Sandwell Street (page 19 of the pdf)
http://cdn.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/...87-part2.pdf.

I found the undelivered letter list while looking for Abdul. The search page is here: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/?q=. I searched Abdul Surry Hills, clicked on the link to the Government Gazettes and saw there was a link to returned letters for 1892. Clicked on that and had to use ctrl+F and searched the page for Abdul.

There were only two matches, the one in the search bar and the one on the page. Hit the down arrow in the find box which brought up the link to 'Continued on page 6290', clicked on that and there it was! This will all be browser dependent of course but the gist will be roughly the same.

The reason I think it's Dari is because I searched "goodfoor" (including the inverted commas) in google and found a Ropasd Goodfoor in Afghanistan. I searched for Afghan languages and looked at the Pashto and Dari scripts. The latter looks far more likely than the former.


Hi Erilaz,

Yes our National Library is such a fabulous resource and thank you for posting the link

I've looked there countless times over the years and have saved many maps for future use. A lot of streets in Sydney city have disappeared, been realigned, renamed etc. Other historical and also parish maps can be found here: http://www.nswlrs.com.au/land_title.../parish_maps All part of the armoury of the Postal Historian!


Thank you all, what a wonderful community we have here

So, anyone know how to read Dari

Bobby,
do not understand your shock? Farnell Street?
enlighten me.

I did find Sandwell on street view, it looks like a tiny Laneway.

Probably at the time of your cover, it was a hive of industry.

Number 9 Sandwell , was a brewer of Cordials.........

Shock was probably a poor choice of emoticon.

More like ironic/amazing that the two streets we mentioned intersect. Right near the Cricketer's Arms Hotel but that's another story!

Great info on the cordial manufacturer too thank you To add to the irony/amazement, I grew up a stone's throw away from Dixon and Landsdowne Streets.

The 1888 map likewise only shows odd-numbered buildings: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231087623/view

Fabulous map!

-----------------------------------------------------

This just gets curiouser and curiouser (Alice in wonderland)

Summons and Blackman, the cordial business, was down as 9 Sandwell street, yet the business on the map, shows it opposite in the even numbered side

Sandwell street today. (with obligatory grafitti)

The houses at the end of the street look like original 1890's homes

Just a small update on this cover.

I showed this envelope to an Afghani friend of mine who said the language is neither Pashto or Dari. He actually said it looked like Thai or that part of the world.

With this, and following Rod's line of thinking, I looked at the languages in the regions east of India. If you turn my second scan upside down the language looks like Bengali.

An example from 1973:

https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/201...-citizenship

I don't think it is Thai.
A shame our member "Joy" has not seen this thread,
He has a fabulous knowledge of all things Indian.

First the second image showing the reverse of the cover is posted upside down.

The writings in red ink is not in Nepali, Dari, Pashto, Thai or Myanmar language but is in Bangla, one of the 22 official languages of India, the state language of the Indian states of Pashchimbanga and Tripura and it is also my mother tongue.

Bangla is also the national language of Bangladesh which was part of India until August 14,1947 as a result of Partition, the price we had to pay for our independence.

The biggest problem here I face is that the site software does not support various Indian scripts. So I am posting just the transliterations followed by the translation.

The handwriting is very bad, presumably written by someone not accustomed to writing Bangla, may be a laborer. So very few I could manage to decipher.

Obverse Side

Shriman Akbar Gafur paibek

Mr. Akbar Gafur will receive.
(NB. Shriman is an honorific commonly used in India. Mr. is just a poor translation.)

Next words are difficult to read which are something like "Patra?/Pathao? Ekush? Arimolla?". I am not sure about this.

Reverse Side

Amar Batir ebang Tomar
Gharer #350;akalke Jabar? ?
Apeal? Janan? Age?
Khalil? Jalil?
Khalil? Jalil?
Pinda Apnar

Amader
Ami Tomar
Babajiban?

To all from my home and yours
????
????
????
Your ?

Our
I am your
Son-in-Law

@erilaz



@Bobby De La Rue



The addressee is Abdul Gafur, not "Abdub Pubfor" (by erilaz) or "Abdul Goodfoor/Abdul Gudfor" (by Bobby De La Rue).

This is a case where the cover is most likely addressed to the head of the family which was customary for writing addresses in India, when the actual recipient was Akbar Gafur.

The writings in Bangla was thus definitely written by the sender as it is clearly mentioned on the address side of the cover.

@erilaz



Bangla does have that "distinctive top bar".

Anyone familiar in District Post mail of Bangla or pre-1947 intra-province mail of Bangla will recognize the script and the language.

Here is an example of Bangla writing on a Br. India 1898 Kajla–Kolkata cover.

@Kimo



India now has 1635 languages and 86 scripts.

Thanks, Joy. Of those 1635 languages, how many are "official" languages that the government recognizes as such and how many are unofficial languages? India is such a large and diverse country with so many cultures.