Linguafour's name and logo

Linguafour name

Linguafour rhymes with “Singapore” and celebrates Singapore’s unique cultural heritage in having four national languages (English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil) from four different language families (Indo-European, Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan and Dravidian). This is a rare treasure, providing a 360° view of any situation. 

Linguafour logo

The Linguafour logo is a stylisation of Singapore’s national flower: the “Vanda Miss Joaquim” orchid hybrid.  The design sits in a “Red Dot,” incorporates the colours of the Singapore flag, and uses pairs of inverted commas in a heart shape to represent love for languages.  Four larger pairs highlight the four national languages, while three smaller pairs remind us of Singapore’s diversity of minority languages.

Like the nation it symbolises, the flower is a hybrid: the product of different backgrounds coming together.  It is a happy coincidence that the plant typically has four blossoms at time, while its name is derived from three different languages: “Vanda” comes from Urdu, “Orchid” comes from Greek, and Miss Agnes Joaquim was Armenian.

The logo - and the focal images we use in the header images on our posts - are placed in a disc. On the one hand, this represents unity and wholeness: “together as one” and a “360° view.” On the other hand, it represents a lens - be that the lens on a camera, telescope or microscope we are using to gather information; or the lens of our eye that we use to receive information; or the lens of our “mind’s eye” through which we interpret information - which simultaneously highlights certain things for us while blinding us to others.

Background image

In the image above, the Linguafour name and logo are superimposed on a photo of the “Singapore Soul” sculpture by Jaume Plensa outside the Ocean Financial Centre at 10 Collyer Quay. The sculpture shows a person comprised of words from each of Singapore’s four national languages.

Share the treasure

With Linguafour, discover more about this linguistic treasure that belongs to all Singaporeans, and share it with the world!

How do 4 languages from 4 different language families offer a 360° view? Consider the example of the Blue Pea.

#linguafour #togetherasone  #majulahsingapura #sharethetreasure