Downloaded from https://www.everyspec.com FM 34-54 Appendix G FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEXT RECOGNITION When TECHINT personnel are able to correctly identify foreign languages used in documents or equipment, it has two immediate benefits. First, it helps identify the equipment or type of document and where or who is using it. Second, it ensures that TECHINT personnel request the correct linguistic support. This appendix contains language identification hints that will enable TECHINT personnel to quickly identify some of the many languages used in documents, on equipment plates, and on other materiel.
TECHINT personnel can speed up the entire battlefield TECHINT process by following the guidance herein. The language identification hints were compiled by NGIC. There are thousands of languages and dialects in use in the world today; therefore, this material is not complete. The following include examples of the use of language identification during TECHINT operations. A TECHINT team discovers an ADA system that looks like a Russian ZPU-4 ADA gun. But on closer examination, the technical analysis identifies Chinese characters on a data plate and on the tires. This could mean that this ADA gun is from China, and this observation needs to be reported to TECHINT elements and to the CMEC.
TECHINT personnel find a document in Arabic, but the country they are in speak and write only Spanish. This document could be of intelligence value and would require being reported to TECHINT elements and to document exploitation (DOCEX) personnel. The world's written languages can be divided into alphabet languages and character languages. The only present-day character system is the Chinese system, which has been borrowed by other languages. But there are many alphabets. The most important alphabets currently in use are— The Roman alphabet (used by English and many other languages). G-1 INTRODUCTION LANGUAGE SYSTEMS