Re: Look what I found!

I wrote:
>Roger Mills wrote:
>>_Essang (Talaud)_ had an interesting script, no transcription, apparently R
>>to L-- maybe similar to Old Tagalog script.  Barry??
>
>Well, I'm the other Filipino on the list, so I think I can also
>answer. It looks very suspicious to me -- perhaps even a mistake.
>It bears no resemblance to any Indic script in the Philippines or
>nearby Sulawesi. First of all, it appears to be written from R-L,
>which none of the local scripts of the area that I'm aware of does.
>Secondly, it looks a lot like the Syriac script, an offshoot of
>the Aramaic script, which was used on the other side of the globe.
>I suppose one explanation could be that the script featured in the
>site is merely a variant of the Arabic script since Indonesia is a
>predominantly Muslim country. But that itself could be problematic
>since the Muloccas is a predominantly Christian area. But then,
>again, Syriac was used by Christians. Hmmm... its all very very
>confusing...
I just had a look-see at the two scripts featured at the site
and compared them. Syriac at:

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-syriac.html

and Essang (Talaud) at:

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-essang.html

and I'm convinced that it is the same script. The prayer
starts out as "Hail Mary...", and the first two words of
the featured 'scripts' are very very similar if not identical.
Judge for yourself. The rest of the texts are of course not
identical since (I assume) they are representing two different
languages. Though I'm still curious as to why Syriac would be
used to write Talaud. Could it be that the Christian missionaries
that went to Talaud were from the Middle East?

-kristian- 8)