Bilingual inscription
In epigraphy, a bilingual is an inscription that includes the same text in two languages. Bilinguals are important for the decipherment of ancient writing systems, and for the study of ancient languages with small or repetitive corpora.
Important bilinguals include:
- the first known Sumerian-Akkadian bilingual tablet dating to the reign of Rimush, circa 2270 BCE.
- the Urra=hubullu tablets in Sumerian and Akkadian; one tablet is a Sumerian-Hurrian bilingual glossary.
- the bilingual Ebla tablets in Sumerian and Eblaite
- the bilingual Ugarit Inscriptions :
- *tablets in Akkadian and Hittite
- *tablets in Akkadian and Hieroglyphic Luwian
- *tablets in Sumerian and Akkadian
- *tablets in Ugaritic and Akkadian
- the Karatepe Bilingual in Phoenician and Hieroglyphic Luwian
- the Tell el Fakhariya Bilingual Inscription in Aramaic and Akkadian
- the Çineköy inscription in Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician
- the Assyrian lion weights in Akkadian and Aramaic
- the Kandahar Edict of Ashoka in Ancient Greek and Aramaic
- the Amathus Bilingual in Eteocypriot and Ancient Greek
- the Pyrgi Tablets in Etruscan and Phoenician
- the Kaunos Bilingual, in Carian and Ancient Greek
- the Philae obelisk, in Egyptian hieroglyphs and Ancient Greek
- the Rosetta Stone Series, in Egyptian and Ancient Greek; they allowed the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs
- *the Raphia Decree
- *the Decree of Canopus
- *the Rosetta Stone decree : the Rosetta Stone and the Nubayrah Stele
- the Cippi of Melqart in Phoenician and Ancient Greek; discovered in Malta in 1694, the key which allowed French scholar Abbé Barthelemy to decipher the Phoenician script
- the Punic-Libyan Inscription in Libyan and Punic; from the Mausoleum of Ateban, now held at the British Museum, it allowed the decipherment of Libyan
- the Monumentum Ancyranum inscription in Latin and Greek; it reproduces and translates the Latin inscription of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti
- the Stele of Serapit in Ancient Greek and Armazic
- the Velvikudi inscription in Sanskrit and Tamil
- the Valun tablet in Old Croatian and Latin
- the Muchundi Inscription in Arabic and Malayalam
- the Kalyani Inscriptions in Mon and Pali
Important trilinguals include:
- the trilingual Aphek-Antipatris inscription in Sumerian, Akkadian and Canaanite; it is a lexicon
- the trilingual Ugarit Inscriptions :
- *a dictionary in Sumerian, Akkadian and Hurrian.
- *a literary text in Sumerian, Akkadian and Hittite; it was imported from Hattusa.
- the Behistun Inscription in Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian ; it allowed the decipherment of cuneiform script
- the Xanthos Obelisk in Ancient Greek, Lycian and Milyan
- the Van Fortress inscription in Old Persian, Akkadian, and Elamite; it allowed the decipherment of Old Persian.
- the Letoon trilingual, in standard Lycian or Lycian A, Ancient Greek and Aramaic
- the Ezana Stone in Ge'ez, Sabaean and Ancient Greek
- the Monumentum Adulitanum in Ge'ez, Sabaean and Ancient Greek
- the trilingual epitaph for Meliosa in Hebrew, Latin and Greek; the Jewish headstone includes a pentagram and a five-branched menorah in the Latin text.
- the Galle Trilingual Inscription in Chinese, Tamil and Persian
- the Yongning Temple Stele in Chinese, Mongolian and Jurchen; see below.
- the Shwezigon Pagoda Bell Inscription in Burmese, Mon and Pali
- the quadrilingual Ugarit Inscription in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian and Ugaritic.
- the Myazedi inscription in Burmese, Pyu, Mon and Pali; it allowed the decipherment of Pyu.
- the Sawlumin inscription in Burmese, Pyu, Mon, Pali and Sanskrit
- the Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass inscriptions in Sanskrit, Classical Tibetan, Mongolian, Old Uyghur, Chinese and Tangut; it engraves two different Buddhist dharani-sutras transcriptions from Sanskrit using 6 scripts, another text in 5 languages, and a Chinese & Tangut summary of one dharani-sutra.
- the Stele of Sulaiman in Sanskrit, Classical Tibetan, Mongolian, Old Uyghur, Chinese and Tangut ; the Buddhist mantra Om mani padme hum is transcribed from Sanskrit using 6 scripts, below another Chinese engraving.
- the Yongning Temple Stele in Chinese, Jurchen, Mongolian and Classical Tibetan; the Buddhist mantra Om mani padme hum is transcribed from Sanskrit using 4 scripts arranged vertically on sides, and there is another Chinese text engraved on the front with abbreviated Mongolian & Jurchen translations on the back.
- the cornerstone of the UN headquarters in English, French, Chinese, Russian and Spanish; the text "United Nations" in each official language and "MCMXLIX" are etched on stone.
- Peace poles, displaying each one the message "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in multiple languages
- the Georgia Guidestones, with two multilingual inscriptions
- *a short message at the top in four ancient languages, i.e., in Akkadian, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit and Egyptian
- *the ten guidelines on the slabs in eight modern languages, i.e., in English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.