Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing? • Hacker News Board

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#51

Post by bredren » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 6:02 AM UTC

evanelias wrote: post #33

It could be an imaginary language. There are certainly stranger examples, like the Codex Seraphinianus: https://www.openculture.com/2017/09/an-introduction-to-the-c...

This reminds me of Deseret, the made up language by Brigham Young.

It was part of early efforts to make learning Mormonism “easier” for immigrants.

The alphabet failed to take on. Original copies of what was printed are rare.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_alphabet

https://www.schilbantiquarian.com/product/1868-1ed-deseret-a...

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#52

Post by shakezula » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 6:17 AM UTC

skosch wrote: post #20

mynegation wrote: post #5

Tai Le? [1] I honestly don’t know but I stuck some handwritten symbols into Shapecatcher [2] and this is my best guess. Other handwritten examples: https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=script... My other guesses were Georgian, Armenian, or (though unlikely) cursive variant of aboriginal syllabics. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_Le_script [2] https://shapecatcher.com/

Nice, Tai Le looks really close! I first thought it might be Deseret Cursive [1], but I don't think that's it either. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_alphabet

Whoa I grew up Mormon and have never once heard of this script. Super interesting. There is so much Church history that they don’t teach because it’s weird in contemporary light, and this is a great example of that.

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#53

Post by kingofpandora » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 6:22 AM UTC

I thought the responses here might be interesting but they boil down to "I've seen the Cyrillic script once, so I'm going to suggest that."

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#54

Post by aaron695 » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 6:33 AM UTC

ghayes wrote: post #3

Here are the direct links to the not very high resolution photographs from the article: [0] https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/WNEP/images/323b9a63-45... [1] https://media.tegna-media.com/assets/WNEP/images/bdb99b5f-a4...

Strangely the second page on both photos is upside down.

mynegation's, Tai Le call seems best, and 13of40 example of Palaung which uses Tai Le is currently closest IMO.

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#55

Post by imedadel » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 6:39 AM UTC

I would've said the Hebrew script, however, the diacritics are unusual.

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#56

Post by dane-pgp » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 6:50 AM UTC

sterlind wrote: post #45

max_ wrote: post #40

This looks like the same text on the Voynich Manuscript [0] — only without the illustrations. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

No gallows letters in this text, everything is a lot swoopier, I don't think they're related. Really wish Derek Vogt hadn't pulled his videos on Voynich and how to identify obscure writing systems.

I too miss those videos, as his analysis was the most compelling I've seen. For those who never saw them, there is a good summary of them here:

https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/27/open-thread-85-25/#com...

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#57

Post by nielsbot » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 8:37 AM UTC

kingofpandora wrote: post #53

I thought the responses here might be interesting but they boil down to "I've seen the Cyrillic script once, so I'm going to suggest that."

Humans are pattern recognizers... what did you expect?

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#58

Post by mrmonkeyman » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 9:02 AM UTC

shakezula wrote: post #52

skosch wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice, Tai Le looks really close! I first thought it might be Deseret Cursive [1], but I don't think that's it either. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_alphabet

Whoa I grew up Mormon and have never once heard of this script. Super interesting. There is so much Church history that they don’t teach because it’s weird in contemporary light, and this is a great example of that.

"The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421."

Sorry, everything about it is weird in any light. I hope this shit is gone before the next century.

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#59

Post by skrebbel » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 9:16 AM UTC

bredren wrote: post #51

evanelias wrote: post #33

It could be an imaginary language. There are certainly stranger examples, like the Codex Seraphinianus: https://www.openculture.com/2017/09/an-introduction-to-the-c...

This reminds me of Deseret, the made up language by Brigham Young. It was part of early efforts to make learning Mormonism “easier” for immigrants. The alphabet failed to take on. Original copies of what was printed are rare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_alphabet https://www.schilbantiquarian.com/product/1868-1ed-deseret-a...

Deseret isn't a language, it's a script for the English language.

(Which, if I may be so rude, is an excellent idea because the English writing system is absolutely bonkers)

Re: Can You Identify This Mysterious Old Writing?

#60

Post by skrebbel » Sat, Feb 27, 2021, 9:21 AM UTC

emmelaich wrote: post #23

imgabe wrote: post #6

Wow, crazy to see my hometown news station on Hacker News. I wonder if it could be Russian cursive[1]. It looks like it's maybe slanted the wrong way though. https://external-preview.redd.it/_7TECX4LqBnawfANogqhrLPd9vb...

My impression was Russian/Georgian or similar too, but slanted wrong. Perhaps mirrored?

> Russian/Georgian

Looks a bit French/Korean to me.