(click on image for larger size)
I found this slip of paper in a 1907 book called ‘Historia Patria’ from Mexico. I had been curious about what language the note was written in and asked about it a few years ago when I was blogging on Myspace (gasp!). A friend did his best to try and make out the script and used this nifty website to try and determine the language. http://www.unicode.org/charts/
My theory now is that is was written by someone who was trying to copy letters out of a book and probably was not accustomed to using a writing instrument. I can imagine someone picking this book up and attempting to write without instruction. The strange gnarled letters was their interpretation of what they saw on the page.
uh-oh, a puzzle for me. i anticipate many hours spent staring at this.
i’m no handwriting expert, but some of the characters seem way too well-replicated to have come from someone who was unaccustomed to writing. what look like lowercase n’s with some flourishes that suggest the greek lowercase eta (used twice in the last line) is just one of the characters that look to me to be too reliably repeated for an untrained hand. of course, i have no better alternative explanation either.
is there any chance you could post a bigger scan/photo?
Anita have you checked out “Taquigrafia” a form of shorthand writing that my mom used in Mexico. Check it out wiki it.
Hi Human, thanks for taking an interest! I uploaded a larger scan.
Cinthya, thanks for the tip on the shorthand. I’d never heard of it.
Please let me know if you all find anything out! 🙂