Russell Yee

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vexillingual (adj., coined) — pertaining to the intersection of flags (vexillology) and languages (linguistics)

Take Oakland’s flag (adopted in 1952, for the city’s centennial) and translate OAKLAND 101 different ways–it was a simple idea but a big challenge, linguistically, graphically, and artistically.

Of the 1,000s of possible choices, I picked a combination of:
– Latin-script living languages that translate OAKLAND (Tongan, Hawaiian)
– Non-Latin script living languages that either translate or transliterate OAKLAND:
– Alphabetic (Korean, Balinese, Arabic, the Cyrillics)
– Non-alphabetic (Chinese)
– Ancient Languages (usually phonetic approximations; Phonecian, Hieroglyphic, Linear B)
– Fictional Languages (Wakandan [Black Panthers], Auerebesh [Star Wars], Tengwar [J. R. R. Tolkien])
– Other writing and signaling systems (Braille, Semaphore, Morse Code, Shorthand)
– Computer languages (Binary, Hex, Unicode, barcode, QR code)
– Just Plain Fun (LEET, Emoji, Spongebob, Pokemon, Minecraft)

I chose 101 as a round number that would fit comfortably into about 10 minutes of display time.

1. Akkadian (conjectural): 𒍝𒀀𒅗𒇽𒀀𒉈𒁲
2. Amharic (Ethiopia): ኦክላንድ
3. Anagram: NODALAK
4. Arabic: أوكلاند
5. Aramaic (Syriac script):
6. Armenian: ՕՔԼԵՆԴ
7. ASCII / UTF-8 (hex): 4F 41 4B 4C 41 4E 44
8. ASL (fingerspelling):
9. Assamese (northeastern India): ওকলেণ্ড
10. Aurebesh (Star Wars):
11. Avestan (Zoroastrian liturgical): 𐬋𐬂𐬥𐬛𐬐𐬮
12. Balinese:
13. Barcode:
14. Base64: T0FLTEFORA==
15. Bengali (Bangladesh): ওকল্যান্ড
16. Berber / Tamazight (North Africa): ⵓⴽⵍⴰⵏⴷ
17. Binary: 1001111 1100001 1101011 1101100 1100001 1101110 1100100
18. Braille: ⠠⠠⠕⠁⠅⠇⠁⠝⠙
19. Burmese: အိုကလန်
20. Canadian Aboriginal Syllabic (Plains Cree orthography): ᐅᐊᑲᒥᐊᓀᑌ
21. Caucasian Albanian / Old Udi:  𐕒𐔰𐕣𐔾𐔰𐕎𐔳
22. Cherokee: ᎣᎩᎳᏂᏗ
23. Chinese (Cantonese, Traditional): 屋崙
24. Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional): 奧克蘭
25. Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified): 奥克兰
26. Court Reporter Steno (Plover): OEK/HRAPBD
27. Dari (Afghanistan): اوکلند
28. Deseret (Latter-day Saints): OKL_ND
29. Dinka (South Sudan): ÖKPÄN
30. Divehi (Maldives): އޯކްލޭންޑް
31. Emoji 🌳🏞️
32. English: OAKLAND
33. Esperanto: OAKLANDO
34. Fijian: OKILANDI
35. Gallifreyan (Dr. Who):
36. Georgian: ოკლენდი
37. Glagolitic (Old Church Slavonic):
38. Gödel Number: 2¹⁵3¹5¹¹7¹²11¹13¹⁴17⁴ = 2403327857642931000651111228818832 x 10¹¹
39. Greek: ΟΚΛΑΝΤ
40. Gujarati (Gujarat state, western India): ઓકલૅન્ડ
41. Hawaiian: ʻŌKELANA
42. Hebrew: אוקלנד
43. Hieroglyphic (conjectural): 𓅱𓄿𓎡𓃭𓄿𓈖𓂧
44. Hindi + Bhojpuri: ओकलैंड
45. Hyphy: OAKTOWN!
46. Initial Teaching Alphabet: Olkand
47. International Phonetic Alphabet: /ˈoʊklənd/
48. Japanese (Katakana): オークランド  
49. Javanese: ꦎꦏ꧀ꦭꦤ꧀
50. Kannada (Karnataka state, southwestern India): ಓಕ್ಲ್ಯಾಂಡ್
51. Khmer (Cambodia):  អូកឡែនដ៍
52. Klingon: zoQqlaHhnt
53. Korean: 오클랜드
54. Lao: ໂອກແລນ
55. Latin (“oak grove): QUERCETUM
56. L33T: 04KL4ND
57. Linear-B (Mycenaean Greek):  
58. Malayalam (Kerala state, southwestern India): ഓക്‌ലാൻഡ്
59. Māori: ŌKARANGI
60. Marathi (Maharashtra state, central-western India): ओकलंड
61. Maritime Signal Flags: 
62. Minecraft (Standard Galactic Alphabet): 𝙹ᔑꖌꖎᔑリ↸
63. Mongolian: ᠣᠺᠯᠠᠨ (traditional) ОАКЛАНД (Cyrillic)
64. Morse Code: — .- -.- .-.. .- -. -..
65. NATO Phonetic: OSCAR ALFA KILO LIMA ALFA NOVEMBER DELTA
66. Nepali: ओकल्यान्ड
67. N’Ko (West Africa): ߏߞߑߟߊ߲ߘߌ
68. Odia (Odisha state, central-eastern India): ଓକଲ୍ୟାଣ୍ଡ
69. Ogham (Old Irish, conjectural): ᚑᚐᚊᚂᚐᚅᚇ
70. Orkhon (Old Turkic): 𐰆𐰀𐰴𐰞𐰀𐰣𐰑
71. Osmanya (Somalia): 𐒝𐒏𐒐𐒖𐒒𐒆
72. Pashto (Afghanistan, Pakistan): اوکلنډ
73. Persian: اوکلند
74. Phoenician (conjectural):
75. Punjabi (India & Pakistan): ਓਕਲੈਂਡ
76. QR Code:
77. Rohingya (Hanifi script, Rakhine state, Myanmar / Burma): 𐴀𐴡𐴝𐴑𐴓𐴝𐴕𐴊
78. Runic (conjectural): ᛟᚨᚲᛚᚨᚾᛞ
79. Samaritan: ࠀࠅࠒࠋࠍࠃ
80. Semaphore: 
81. Serbian, Montenegrin: ОКЛАНД
82. Shan (Myanmar / Burma): ဢွၵ်ႉလႅၼ်ႇ
83. Shorthand (Gregg):
84. Sinhala (Sri Lanka): ඕක්ලන්ඩ්
85. Spongebob: oAkLaNd
86. Sunuwar (Nepal): 𑯑𑯆𑯐𑯈𑯍𑯀
87. Tamil (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, south India; Sri Lanka, Singapore): ஓக்லாந்த்
88. Telugu (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states, southeastern India): ఓక్లాండ్
89. Tengwar (Tolkien’s Elvish; used on the One Ring):
90. Thai:  โอ๊คแลนด์
91. Tibetan (Tibet), Dzongkha (Bhutan): ཨོ་ཀ་ལན་ཌི།
92. Tigrinya (Eritrea & Ethiopia): ኦክላንድ
93. Tongan: ʻOKALANI
94. Tulu (south India): ಓಕ್ಲ್ಯಾಂಡ್
95. Ukrainian, Russian: ОКЛЕНД
96. Unicode Code Points: U+004F U+0041 U+004B U+004C U+0041 U+004E U+0044
97. Unown (Pokemon): OAKLAND 
98. Urdu (Pakistan & India): اوکلینڈ
99. Uyghur (Xinjiang, northwestern China): ئوكلاند
100. Vai (Liberia): ꕱꕉꕪꕞꔕ
101. Wakandan (Black Panther):   

The theme here is language variety and not merely typographic variety. However I did include a few that are simply alternative scripts, mostly just for fun (Aurebesh, Spongebob, Pokemon).

Some languages are ordinarily read left-to-right (like English) but about 15 of these are ordinarily right-to-left (Arabic, Aramaic / Syriac, Avestan, Dari, Divehi / Thaana, Hebrew, N’Ko, Pashto, Persian, Phoenician, Rohingya, Samaritan, Urdu, Uyghur). Ogham was written bottom-to-top (as inscriptions on the edges of stones). Traditional Mongolian is top-to-bottom, right-to-left. And various other languages feature other variations and possibilities.

The first challenge was getting OAKLAND translated / transliterated. Here we can divide all the flags into two categories:

1. “Dictionary” translations that are living languages that would actually use these forms in publications, along with machine-accurate technical codes and forms. Here I used a lot of Google Translate, ChatGPT, and many specialized websites, and did a lot of cross-checking and back-translating.

2. “Unofficial” versions that are invented or conjectural. Some of these are simply transliterated or phonetic (Phonecian, Cuneiform) and others are based on meaning (Latin: “Quercetum” = “Oak Grove”). I did make efforts to actually follow the phonology of target languages, and not just do letter-for-letter substitutions, so, e.g., Klingon is “ʼoQlaHnt” (in tlhIngan Hol Latin-script text), then displayed in the pIqaD Klingon script. Of course, essentially all of these are subject to discussion and debate, especially because languages vary vastly in their phonemes (sounds) and the ways they construct words.

I made no effort to translate Oakland’s founding year (1852) even though many of these languages use non-Arabic numbers. It would have added a lot of work for an inconsistent and complicated result that maybe distracted more than added.

When possible I found actual True Type Fonts to generate the needed glyphs with smooth edges. It’s amazing how many fonts there are out there; I found ones for Klingon, Deseret, Rohingya, Unown, etc. etc. Other times I had to work from graphic images (Linear-B), which of course is less satisfying because of pixelated edges.

There is no official specification of the flag colors. Generally speaking, there are Oakland flags where the yellow is a bit more golden and darker, and others where it is a brighter, lighter yellow. I went with these colors from https://www.flagcolorcodes.com/oakland

I loaded the finished flags into PowerPoint, set up the captions and fades, and outputted this to an mp4 video file that runs as a video loop on a Raspberry Pi 4..

ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION

I did not try very hard to match the Sans Serif font of OAKLAND in the official flag, or get the proportions to match.

What sequence to use? I toyed with the idea of a geographical, follow-the-sun-around-the-world sequence, but there are too many languages that are not geographically located. So I decided to just go alphabetically, which has the feature of introducing randomness to the order (e.g., Armenian followed by ASCII), and also usefully conveys to the viewer where the loop is at any given time.

From start to finish, this project would not have be possible prior to all aspects of computer research and production: Wikipedia, ChatGPT, online language translators, downloadable fonts, many obscure websites dedicated to this or that language; then of course computer graphic design and presentation programs that made the creation of the flag images possible and relatively painless (though repeating anything 101 times gets tedious). It was a huge and fun learning experience and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

My greatest hope is that people would see their ancestries and cultures included and honored here in Oakland, and that we can all further enjoy and celebrate Oakland’s diversity.