Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 March 4

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March 4

National Flags with Writing

Aside from that of Brazil, do any other national flags have writing on them? —Nricardo (talk) 02:25, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

• I managed to find it List_of_national_flags_by_design#Text. I had been expecting a category, though. —Nricardo (talk) 02:38, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

The category you want is Text. Wymspen (talk) 13:36, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

Saudi Arabia. μηδείς (talk) 08:17, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

Lots - mostly either Muslim countries with a religious text in Arabic, or countries with their coat of arms included on the flag. Afghanistan, Andorra, Belize, Bolivia (one variant), Brazil, Brunei, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Malta, Nicaragua, Paraguay, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Spain (limiting it to sovereign states recognised as such by the United Nations - you could probably find others if you used a wider definition of a nation). Wymspen (talk) 13:32, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

The majority of them include into the flag design a separately-designed national emblem, seal, or coat of arms which has the writing. Exceptions to this include the flags of Malta (which includes something which is not a national emblem), Iraq, and Saudi Arabia... AnonMoos (talk) 18:00, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

I clicked through the images at this non-reliable source and confirmed Wymspen's list with the exception of Costa Rica. Although Wikipedia says it is the unofficial version, the flag variant I've always seen used for the country is the one without the coat of arms and therefore no text. Not that I've seen it that often.

Flag of Costa Rica shows both variants, with and without the coat of arms. The one with the coat of arms is called the state flag (apparently meaning it is the one used by the government) and the one without the arms is the national flag - though I find the distinction between the state and the nation rather confusing. It is obviously easier, and cheaper, to make the version without the arms for common use, though in most such cases the variant with the arms appears to be the original, and official, flag. Wymspen (talk) 13:10, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Anyway, I just thought I'd note that the most common languages on flags are Spanish (7 Latin American countries, counting Costa Rica) and Arabic (6 Islamic countries, using a variety of script styles). Latin occurs on 4 flags (Andorra, Belize, San Marino, and Spain), Portuguese on one (Brazil), French on one (Haiti), and English on one (Malta). And while they have changed it since, I would like to give a shout-out to the old flag of Rwanda, with its single giant letter R. --69.159.62.113 (talk) 01:44, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

The text on the Flag of Saudi Arabia is the Shahada, an Islamic statement of faith. For that reason, Saudi flags are always made of two flags sewn together back-to-back, so that the text is never shown inside out, which would be disrespectful. Alansplodge (talk) 12:57, 5 March 2018 (UTC)

Also, according to Saudi wishes, the Flag of Saudi Arabia should not be lowered to half-mast when others are. Hayttom (talk) 19:57, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

Or hung sideways (special sideways flags are produced) or printed on footballs! [1]. Alansplodge (talk) 09:02, 8 March 2018 (UTC)