A recent query I received 📩 :
"I was wondering if you might be able to give me a few clues as to the script used on a bronze ink stamp that I have in my collection. I have had it for several years and it puzzles me."
🔠 Knowing a number of languages means that I regularly receive queries like these out of the blue requesting that I identify what language text is in, and if possible, to translate it.
This person initially assumed the text was in Russian, the largest and most identifiable language using Cyrillic script, but there are dozens of other languages that use or have used this alphabet. A search on the internet based on some of the unique letters failed to come up with any clue for him. He even tried to pair the letters up with Georgian and Coptic scripts, but to no luck.
So best call in an expert... and that was me.
Based on the text, I quickly identified the script – Romanian Cyrillic 🇷🇴. Yes, thanks to Romanians being Orthodox Christians using Old Church Slavonic for religious purposes, Romanian was written using Cyrillic script until the mid-19th century. Note that the Cyrillic alphabet used to write Moldovan in Soviet times was different as it derived from the post-1918 Russian Cyrillic alphabet.
And the text then flowed: Jud. (Judeţ) Ialomliţa, Pl (Plasa) Borci, Satul Hotaru de Jos (Ialomliţa County, Borci District, Village of Hotaru de Jos).
The person was so thankful that this mystery had been solved ✅.
If you need text identifying, feel free to send it to me and I'll do my best to work it out!
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