SearchResearch Challenge (11/23/22): How to read other scripts and languages?

 I'm never one to turn down an SRS opportunity... 

As you can imagine, in the back pocket of my mind I've got 4 or 5 SearchResearch Challenges queued up and ready to go, questing ever onward bringing you the tidbits of knowledge we all need in our searching lives. 

But every so often, a chance comment tilts the universe in a slightly different direction by pointing out an opportunity for a new SRS topic.  

In a comment this week, Mathlady wrote that "I also encountered the problem of needing to translate signage in an unfamiliar language using an alphabet unknown to me. So I started wondering how to use Google Translate with a different alphabet..."  

Excellent question. 

This is a great chance to talk about how to do exactly that--read in writing systems (what the pros call "orthographies") that you don't recognize.  In some cases (such as Arabic), I can't even recognize the letter boundaries.  

Thanks, Mathlady, for the chance to pose a couple of interesting and potentially tricky Challenges: 

1.  For each of these images below: What is the language?  What is the translation of the text?  

A. 

B. 

C. 

D.

As always, be sure to tell us how you did the translation.  (Did you find a friend? Or did you use an app to do this for you?)  And, as Mathlady points out, how did you enter the text to do your search???  

I'll tell you how I did this next week--but in the meantime, have a great American Thanksgiving!    روز شکرگزاری  or  ਧੰਨਵਾਦੀ   or  Þakkargjörð... or... fill in your own orthography here! 

Search on!