As I said on the blog, I finally went to the Star Wars Identities Exhibition in Montreal.
There, I took this photo of Darth Vader's Chest control panel (You could get it in higher resolution here) :
So, what is written under those buttons?
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Sign up to join this communityAs I said on the blog, I finally went to the Star Wars Identities Exhibition in Montreal.
There, I took this photo of Darth Vader's Chest control panel (You could get it in higher resolution here) :
So, what is written under those buttons?
It says nothing coherent.
I am an Israeli, fluent in English and Hebrew is my mother tongue.
Although the translations are true it is not what is written on the shield.
The first letter of the first line is a mirrored א
"Aleph", Wikipedia
The second letter of the second line is an upside down ח or ת
"Tav (letter)", "Heth", Wikipedia
The fourth fifth and sixth letter מצש has only one remote meaning in Hebrew which is מצ"ש - meaning the part of Saturday which is no longer considered Sabbath (after sundown).
The second line has only one letter which can be read as Hebrew which is מ
as can be seen here
The third line has two words:
Notice merit is spelled שזכה the difference is the second letter ל or ז
"Lamedh", Wikipedia
"Zayin", Wikipedia
As for phonetics the words can't really be read.
The first 'word' can be read as
at (sounds like @)
The second word is
Mooutazssh (Moo-za-ash)
The second line cannot be read on my link on the original link it's
TzitzMilag - tz-i-mi-laagg
It has no meaning and can't be read.
The third line can be read as
A'ad Shelacha.
According to SW Wikia discussions:
he control panel from V and VI bore Hebrew lettering that can be translated as "
His deeds will not be forgiven, until he merits
".
Someone fluent in Hebrew was able to corroborate that based on Star Wars Blueprints: The Ultimate Collection, by DK publishing as well
There is also a fairly extended discussion on the page where Wikia links as a reference (Wayback machine link, search for "Hebrew"). It seems that most or at least some of the research dates back to rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc
newsgroup.
Yahoo Answers has phonetics of the wording (not corroborated or referenced):
ein ma'asav = his deeds will not
nisslachim = be forgiven
ad shezacha = until he merits
They also note that the middle line is upside down.
Extra several pages of discussion are at STAR WARS Technical Commentaries.
People, remember: It's a prop. Whoever made it back in 1975 decided it needed labels but knew that they would never be readable, so they stuck on something that was clearly not meant to be readable.
Given raam86's statement that the labels are hebrew it is highly likely that the prop maker was jewish enough to know the alphabet and decided to mix it up a bit. Given the number of easter eggs in many movies ( E.T. appears in one scene in this franchise) I'm slightly surprised it doesn't say Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Mocha.
This is in ancient hebrew, different from modern, some letters are backwards but it says "(his) deeds (will not) be forgiven until he merits"
It says nothing. It's a bunch of incoherent symbols that later developed into Galactic Basic. Google that. It was actually on the back of the instructions to Star Wars Monopoly as well. If you look at the symbols on the chest piece after looking at the "Basic" symbols, you can see how it works.