Fun with alphabets in Israel

If you are interested in languages and alphabets, Israel is the place to be! First, there's the principal language, Hebrew, which has its own ancient alphabet. Then, there's the 2nd official language, Arabic, which also has ITS own alphabet, which looks VERY different from Hebrew. Next, there's English, of course, whose alphabet is different from the other two but far from unique in the world. Almost all official road signs are in these 3 languages.

But it doesn't stop there! It's not at all unusual to see store signs, billboards, and writing on products in the supermarket and in the pharmacy in Russian, which uses yet another alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet.

Yesterday, I was at the pharmacy getting nearly all of our prescriptions for the month filled. Since David takes so many medicines, this is always quite a lengthy process. I have to stand there at the counter and wait while the pharmacist gets together all the medicines. This gives me plenty of time to look around, and, of course, there are plenty of things to read. After all, the pharmacy has a captive audience, and they hope to get us to buy additional items! For example, sitting right on the counter on my left, there was a bottle of some kind of hair product. Without even turning the bottle around, I saw English, Hebrew, and Russian. Ironically, I don't think I saw any Arabic anywhere despite the fact that all but about 2 or 3 of the pharmacists who work there are Arabs (including Saeed, a very nice guy who was helping me) and I regularly hear them talking to each other in Arabic.

There are always copies of the pharmacy's latest flyer sitting there on the counter, of course. I can't resist trying my Hebrew reading skills on these. The front page this time features special prices on 12 different products than one can get if one buys at least 59 shekels worth of other things. Each item is pictured, its special price is shown in a large blue circle, and its name and a few other details are printed in Hebrew. Only, it's not really exactly Hebrew, except in one case. The other 11 products all have English names, and most of them are American brands that I recognize.

OK, so let's have a little fun, at least for those of you who know the Hebrew alphabet. Here are the 11 products with their "Hebrew" names. How many of the brands can you transliterate back into their original English?

אולדייז
מאך 3
הד אנד שולדרס
פלמוליב
הוואי
אולטרסול
קרליין
דאב
שואו
קולגייט הרבל
סנסודיין דואלקר

Remember, these are all actually English words, and the products are all personal hygiene or toiletry products. Most of the brands are quite well-known in the U.S.

I must confess here that I myself would probably not have figured most of these out without the help of the pictures of the products, where the English name is usually shown on the package, as it is in all but one case. I think that one case is not actually an American product, either, but I'll give you a hint: it's name is actually the name of one of the states in the U.S.!

So, there you have it.

Have you pondered them enough?

Are you just about ready for me to spoil it and give you the answers?

Not quite yet, Saeed is calling the hotline of our קופת חולים kupat kholim (literally "sick fund", but actually more like an HMO) to get a special approval since the total comes to over 2000 shekels (that's over $500, folk!). The voice on the speaker-phone announces (in Hebrew, of course) how long the wait will be, right down to to the second (how do they know?!?). Saeed hangs up and calls again. Now the wait will be even longer. He hangs up and calls yet another time. About the same wait announced this time. So, he leaves the "hold" music playing and counts out 60 pills from a bottle of 100. Finally, he gets through and gets the approval. They ALWAYS approve it!

OK, you've waited long enough, even though it's NOT as long as I had to wait at the pharmacy. Here's the list in English:

Alldays
Mach 3
Head and Shoulders
Palmolive
Hawaii
Ultrasol
CareLine
Dove
Show
Colgate Herbal
Sensodyne Dual Care

A couple of notes: that "Mach 3" is from Gillette, but I only know this because "Gillette" appears on the package in the picture. "Gillette" wasn't in the Hebrew at all. The Ultrasol is a Dr. Fischer sunscreen, as I also can see from the package, but they didn't put "Dr. Fischer" in Hebrew this time, either, although I believe that I have seen it transcribed before.

So, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the puzzle.