I'm Stumped: Can Anyone Read This?

Diddums · 17 Apr 2017 at 13:02

It says this:

"Dear Doris. I have run out of papyrus so have decided to etch my message in to this piece of junk I have lying around. How are the kids? Is Vincent getting on well with his abacus yet? Oir neighbours are having a basement built under their house. The slaves are very noisy and it keeps us up. Please write soon, all the best, Tutankhamen"

Chris Wilson · 17 Apr 2017 at 13:09

It says: "Warning, sharp blade".

Edrof · 18 Apr 2017 at 20:38

Ha ha, thanks to all who commented seriously - shame it seems to still be elusive!

Also thanks to less serious posters for making me smile.

jpmonkey69 · 18 Apr 2017 at 21:09

I've seen this before, roughly translates into "Your face here".

HTH

EvilRob · 18 Apr 2017 at 23:02

My wife's family collectively translated it in Hindi as "riyasat kota" which means roughly "Dominion of Kota". Kota is a place.

Make of that what you will, they didn't seem 100% sure and I don't think they wanted to fail

Angilion · 19 Apr 2017 at 02:31

I'm intrigued now. Partly by wanting to know what it means and partly by how hard understanding it is proving to be. I wouldn't have expected a relatively recently made item to be so hard to read. It's not like it's an ancient item discovered by archaeologists digging in the remains of an obscure ancient culture that hasn't existed for a couple of thousand years. I was expecting someone to know someone who could read it.

peterwalkley · 19 Apr 2017 at 09:09

Slayer of Queen Wasps

Participant · 19 Apr 2017 at 14:06

I thought of another joke:

You certainly will be stumped, if you're not careful with that thing!

Ok?

Sankari · 21 Apr 2017 at 15:50

Based on the fact that nobody can agree on the translation, I'm going to stick my neck out and say it's probably not a genuine language at all. Quite likely just a bunch of squiggles intended to make it look vaguely exotic.

StriderX · 21 Apr 2017 at 16:08

Just take it to a museum, they'll have contacts at least to get in touch with ancient language researchers who can tell you.

Avenged7Fold · 21 Apr 2017 at 16:19

If it was a quarterstaff, they would have had the room to inscribe the weapon in at least two dozen other common languages. Jus' sayin'

something daft already!! · 21 Apr 2017 at 16:26

Craig1981 said:
It reads as: "Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput"

Which is English is... oh...

*giggle* *laughs* *laughs hysterically* HNNNGH! *thud*

I love it that google translate brings up a fatal error lol.

Psycho Sonny · 21 Apr 2017 at 16:44

Angilion said:
I'm intrigued now. Partly by wanting to know what it means and partly by how hard understanding it is proving to be. I wouldn't have expected a relatively recently made item to be so hard to read. It's not like it's an ancient item discovered by archaeologists digging in the remains of an obscure ancient culture that hasn't existed for a couple of thousand years. I was expecting someone to know someone who could read it.

India has 22 official languages. According to Census of India, the total number of mother tongues spoken in India is 1652. However, only around 150 languages have a sizable speaking population. The Indian census of 1961 recognised 1,652 different languages in India (including languages not native to the subcontinent).

Angilion · 21 Apr 2017 at 21:35

Psycho Sonny said:
India has 22 official languages. According to Census of India, the total number of mother tongues spoken in India is 1652. However, only around 150 languages have a sizable speaking population. The Indian census of 1961 recognised 1,652 different languages in India (including languages not native to the subcontinent).

That's a lot more than I thought. I would have guessed at it being in the region of a couple of dozen languages.

Given that, I think StriderX makes a good point:

StriderX said:
Just take it to a museum, they'll have contacts at least to get in touch with ancient language researchers who can tell you.

Making contact beforehand might be advisable. Walking into a museum with a sword nobody there is expecting might be misinterpreted.

BlueMerle · 21 Apr 2017 at 21:49

It is the name of the man it was originally made for, Tim.

Edrof · 22 Apr 2017 at 12:54

Evangelion said:
Based on the fact that nobody can agree on the translation, I'm going to stick my neck out and say it's probably not a genuine language at all. Quite likely just a bunch of squiggles intended to make it look vaguely exotic.

It's a period piece, and manufactured to fairly high contemporary standards so it would be incongruous for the characters to be made up. Also, when this type of thing has faked markings they are usually easy to read and easily traced to famous people or regiments.

Avenged7Fold said:
If it was a quarterstaff, they would have had the room to inscribe the weapon in at least two dozen other common languages. Jus' sayin'

I love how the quarterstaff has made it into the GD pantheon.

Participant said:
I thought of another joke:

You certainly will be stumped, if you're not careful with that thing!

Thank you for your attempt at humour, Participant.

Chris Wilson said:
It says: "Warning, sharp blade".

Ironically, this (and most real swords I've owned) ain't sharp at all.

EvilRob said:
My wife's family collectively translated it in Hindi as "riyasat kota" which means roughly "Dominion of Kota". Kota is a place.

Make of that what you will, they didn't seem 100% sure and I don't think they wanted to fail

That is fantastic, thank you for all your help and please thank your wife's family for me too. I already knew that the garuda symbol was linked with the state Kotah so your help is pretty much the confirmation I wanted. Where they able to decipher the vertically-written characters at all?