From: verdy_p (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Thu Mar 04 2010 - 06:41:33 CST
Why do they think it is written in Old English ?
Couldn't that be a Celtic language, or a Nordic language ? Was Old english already universal through the kingdom of
England, around year 1500 ?
And may be, if it was a behind a monument for an aristocrat, it could even be of foreign origin or related to a
previous family ruling before him (and the monument was placed explicitly to hide its memory) e.g. Scottish, Irish,
Breton/Welsh. It could also be related to some families of mercenaries...
It seems that I can read a few short words of English there ("and for are... the"), but these words are too short
and the other letter shapes are quite unusual for the epoch, as well as some diacritics which look similar to
Brahmic scripts (for noting vowels?).
Why not also a Tzigane/Rom language (these languages were traditionnally oral), more or less mixed with some
English, in a script just adapted to look like Latin? After all they were Catholic Christians since long.
> Message du 04/03/10 13:13
> De : "Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven"
> A : "Unicode List"
> Copie à :
> Objet : Hivemind request for decyphering old English
>
>
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254777/Scholars-discover-inscription-believed-earliest-form-English-ask-
public-help-deciphering-it.html
>
> "What is believed to be the first ever example of English written in a
> British church has been discovered. Problem is, no-one can read it.
>
> The 500-year-old inscription was found on a wall in Salisbury Cathedral,
> Wiltshire, hidden behind a monument dedicated to an aristocrat."
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