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Russian car registrations numbers

  • 24-07-2020 7:33pm
    #1
    bobbyss
    Registered Users Posts: 5,189 ✭✭✭


    Do car registrations in Russia have English numbers on them as oppossed to their Russian equivalents? Why is that?


Comments

  • #2
    Dj Stiggie
    Registered Users Posts: 619 ✭✭✭Dj Stiggie


    Everywhere uses Arabic numerals. They use the Cyrillic alphabet, we use the Latin one.


  • #3
    Ce he sin
    Registered Users Posts: 213 ✭✭Ce he sin


    Dj Stiggie wrote: »
    Everywhere uses Arabic numerals. They use the Cyrillic alphabet, we use the Latin one.


    Except the Arab countries and those who use variations of the Arabic alphabet. Arabic numerals are not like arabic ones. Funny, that!


  • #4
    Ce he sin
    Registered Users Posts: 213 ✭✭Ce he sin


    bobbyss wrote: »
    Do car registrations in Russia have English numbers on them as oppossed to their Russian equivalents? Why is that?


    They use Cyrillic letters and the same numbers as we use, if that's what you mean. Cyrillic does not have its own numbers.


  • #5
    SeanW
    Registered Users Posts: 8,719 ✭✭✭SeanW


    Well, our numbers are not Arabic numerals, they are Indo-Arabic numerals. As to the Russian plates, obviously Russia's native language uses the Cyrillic alphabet, but it looks like they limit their characters to Cyrillic characters that are also in the Latin alphabet.
    https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1880&bih=939&ei=u1gbX4WyLMr1gQaoo5XQBA&q=russian+car+registration+plates&oq=Russian+car+registr&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAxgAMgIIADIECAAQGDIECAAQGDoICAAQsQMQgwE6BQgAELEDOgYIABAIEB5Q0QJY2Bpg-CRoAnAAeACAAS6IAYUGkgECMjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img

    (Fun fact, you can make a Venn diagram with letters that only exist in the Latin, Greek or Cyrillic alphabets, letters that exist in two of them, are a small number of letters that exist in all three).
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venn_diagram_showing_Greek,_Latin_and_Cyrillic_letters.svg


  • #6
    shaveAbullock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 965 ✭✭✭shaveAbullock


    It makes sense that they would use plates that could be easily recognised by countries that are on their border.


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  • #7
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    shaveAbullock wrote: »
    It makes sense that they would use plates that could be easily recognised by countries that are on their border.

    Like Mongolia, China, Khazakstan, North Korea etc?


  • #8
    shaveAbullock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 965 ✭✭✭shaveAbullock


    Carawaystick wrote: »
    Like Mongolia, China, Khazakstan, North Korea etc?

    Yes, I think the Latin alphabet would be far more recognised in most those countries than the Cyrillic alphabet.


  • #9
    SeanW
    Registered Users Posts: 8,719 ✭✭✭SeanW


    Carawaystick wrote: »
    Like Mongolia, China, Khazakstan, North Korea etc?
    Not sure what you were getting at here, but the plates must first be readable within Russia obviously, and there is overlap between the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, so it seems they've chosen to make their plates readable as widely as possible by using the letters that are in both alphabets.

    China does not even use an 'alphabet' per se, and there is no overlap between the Cyrillic and Hangul alphabet of the Korean language. But most of the other countries on Russia's land borders use either the Cyrillic or Latin alphabets and the plates are readable in both:
    • Norway: Latin
    • Finland: Latin
    • Estonia: Latin
    • Latvia: Latin
    • Lithuania: Latin
    • Poland (shares a land border with the Kaliningrad Oblast): Latin
    • Belarus: Cyrillic
    • Ukraine: Cyrillic
    • Azerbaijan: Latin
    • Kazakhstan: Currently transitioning from Cyrillic to Latin
    • Mongolia: Cyrillic
    That just leaves Georgia, North Korea and China, but of course there's no overlap between the Cyrillic script and the writing systems of those countries. And China uses a mix of Chinese characters, Indo-Arabic numerals and Latin letters on their reg plates.
    https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.skoda-storyboard.com%2F2019%2F04%2FPhoto-1-edited.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skoda-storyboard.com%2Fen%2Fmodels%2Fdeciphering-number-plates-china%2F&tbnid=FKbVEnVdc-jGAM&vet=12ahUKEwjoxcSJpOfqAhUzXBUIHTPhD0EQMygEegUIARC9AQ..i&docid=TLcUt6cQTJayhM&w=1025&h=769&q=chinese%20car%20registration%20plates&ved=2ahUKEwjoxcSJpOfqAhUzXBUIHTPhD0EQMygEegUIARC9AQ
    So again, a Russian registration plate would be easily readable in the PRC.


  • #10
    CrabRevolution
    Registered Users Posts: 2,795 ✭✭✭CrabRevolution


    I don't think it's specific to reg plates or has much to do with neighbouring countries. Russia uses the Cyrillic alphabet but uses Arabic numerals for numbers. Wikipedia tells me they started using Arabic numerals 300 years ago, so there's every chance modern Russians don't know what Cyrillic numerals even look like....


  • #11
    shaveAbullock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 965 ✭✭✭shaveAbullock


    CrabRevolution wrote: »
    I don't think it's specific to reg plates or has much to do with neighbouring countries. Russia uses the Cyrillic alphabet but uses Arabic numerals for numbers. Wikipedia tells me they started using Arabic numerals 300 years ago, so there's every chance modern Russians don't know what Cyrillic numerals even look like....

    That reaffirms the answer given to the OP's question
    The point now being made is that they only use letters that are both latin and cyrillic in their registration plates.
    That pribaby has to do with bordering countries.


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  • #12
    vrusinov
    Registered Users Posts: 162 ✭✭vrusinov


    Yeah, the general format is <mix of letters and numbers> - <number representing region>.

    The exact number of letters and numbers depends on what it's for - e.g. it's different for cars and trailers. They only use letters which have "equivalent" form in latin, e.g. you could see M but not Я (does not exist in latin) or R or Щ (does not exist in Cyrillic). Not sure why - possibly for software compatibility - this scheme was introduced in 1993.

    Note "equivalent" is only by how it looks but not necessarily how it's pronounced. E.g. "P" in Cyrillic reads as "R".

    Oh, and I'm Russian and I had no idea what "Cyrillic numerals" are. Russia only uses Arabic numbers, and Roman sometimes when one feels fancy.


  • #13
    Quackster
    Moderators, Regional South Moderators Posts: 5,724 Mod ✭✭✭✭Quackster


    vrusinov wrote: »
    Oh, and I'm Russian and I had no idea what "Cyrillic numerals" are. Russia only uses Arabic numbers, and Roman sometimes when one feels fancy.
    I guess you're not old enough to remember! :)

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_numerals


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