Can you identify this script?

June 2, 2017 8:36 AM

Can you identify this script? Bonus points if you know what it says, or what this is.

Someone walked into an academic institution I'm associated with and showed the administrator this photo, asking for help in identifying the script. Apparently he was in Oman when he picked up the ?book it's from, and has been puzzling over it for twenty years.

I'm afraid I have no more information than that!

posted by lapsangsouchong to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

Response by poster: NB—It's definitely not Arabic.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 8:39 AM on June 2, 2017

That looks like it could be Pali: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali
posted by peppercorn at 8:56 AM on June 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Pali looks like a very good bet, thanks peppercorn. (Here is an image from that Wikipedia page, with some Sanskrit for comparison.)

Can anyone confirm this/give an idea of what the text says?
posted by lapsangsouchong at 9:08 AM on June 2, 2017

Visually, these are very similar:
Pali Manuscript - Burmese Buddhist Palm Leaf Kammavacca
A Pali Manuscript from Burma
posted by Nerro at 9:23 AM on June 2, 2017

If this script winds up being difficult to identify, the good people of the Endangered Alphabets Project may be able to help.
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:37 AM on June 2, 2017

I was going to say it looks Southeast Asian to me—a formal variant of Burmese, maybe?—but Pali looks like a better bet. Let us know if you get a firm ID!
posted by languagehat at 10:53 AM on June 2, 2017