It’s probably gibberish, but can anyone tell me if this symbol seen on a medal presented by an Arab king in an old 80s GI Joe cartoon, actually happens to mean anything?
It could be (and probably is) just an animator’s squiggle, true, but this is the same series that had some books labeled with Led Zeppelin album names in the foreground of one episode, and the “H.S. Thompson Chemical Plant” being guarded in another, so you never know. And I thought I’d better check.
I have no immediate clue, but let’s not assume that the portrayed orientation is correct.
It is entirely possible that the presenter of the glyph is unaware of the meaning as well.
Therefore, it could be upside down.
It looks like an ayn, yah, aleph, and lam. What that means, I don’t know, but it’d basically be pronounced “_yal” where the _ is a sort of glottal stop and click noise.
I don’t know what it is but it definitely isn’t numerals. Despite the name, numerals in Arabic don’t look anything like the numerals we use, except the 1 and 9 have a resemblance.
I see “something” yal, but if the first is ayn it’s backward. Almost looks like a K or an H. I have heard that particularly elegant Arab calligraphy can be difficult even for native speakers.
No. ‘Ayn is neither a glottal stop nor a click. It’s traditionally described as a pharyngeal fricative, though nowadays phoneticians are also calling it an epiglottal approximant. Some have even called it a sort of of vowel.
The word that you spelled out, عيال (‘iyāl), means ‘family’. However, as pointed out, the text in question does not have a ‘ayn.
I read it as يحلا yā’ ḥā’ lām alif, which spells the word yaḥlā, which means ‘it is sweet’.
Have you got the same obscure 1980s series on video? The only Google hit for “Myal Jablonski” is this very thread. I looked on IMDB and there’s no sign of him (I think Myal is a male name, BTW), either in the 1985 or 1990 series.
