Sunday, December 7, 2008

Fresh fish!

In medieval times, signs like these (without the text) helped people recognize shops. This shop in Zrenjanin (ZREN-ya-neen), about 76 kms from Belgrade, sells all kinds of fresh river fish and will even grill or fry it for you. The Cyrillic text reads, "Ribarnica" (Ree-BAR-neet-suh), and means fish shop/market.

14 comments:

MuseSwings said...

Those signs are still a good thing for those of us who have managed to go through life speaking only one language.
It's a wonderful sign!

Tash said...

You know, I never really thought about the real purpose of the visual signs that we think are so pretty now. You found a really beautiful one.

humanobserver said...

Quite interesting information !

Anonymous said...

It sounds like something related to a Jewish festival. I noticed the similarity when I read your Ree-BAR-neet-suh.

Symbols and pictures fill ancient manuscripts and bibles as not even the kings who commissioned them could read the texts. It is all very interesting to me.

Jane Hards Photography said...

The fish of course one of the earliest signs of Christianity too. It is still interesting to see the sign still depicts what is being sold.

soulbrush said...

i bet it would taste terrific too.

Gerald (SK14) said...

Our fishmonger cuts us up a piece of boned smoked cod which only takes a couple of minutes to cook in the microwave - we get some at least once a week and sometimes twice or thrice.

marley said...

Cool sign. The fish looks a bit grumpy but then I suppose you would be if you were hung up there. Thanks for spelling out the words pronounciation for us. Its very helpful!

Antjas said...

How long did it take you to learn how to read Cyrillic? I noticed your previous post said kolace (not in Cyrillic). Is the signage still mostly Cyrillic in Serbia these days?

Pat said...

Hi, PJA. Didn't take me long to learn the alphabet, which let me say words, but not know necessarily what they were! Now of course I do. Cyrillic is used most of the time in Serbia; street signs, for example, are usually written in Cyrillic and Latin letters; newspapers, too.

Pat said...

Hi, PJA. Didn't take me long to learn the alphabet, which let me say words, but not know necessarily what they were! Now of course I do. Cyrillic is used most of the time in Serbia; street signs, for example, are usually written in Cyrillic and Latin letters; newspapers, too.

Marie Reed said...

I looove this fresh fish sign!

Marie Reed said...

I should hang a fresh postcards sign outside of my shop!

Tall Gary said...

Although they are put to different uses that wooden fish looks quite Japanese.

I must learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet someday. At least for an approximation of the pronunciation. I’m hoping that Slavic languages aren’t tonal like Thai and Chinese.

SPRING FASHION

 This is a post that would be better in color, but maybe not. These colors were soooo pale.