Re: Yer Ugly Mug (Sorry to Bug)

--- "David J. Peterson" <ThatBlueCat@...>
wrote:

> ObConlang: I found a toy coin in an old box of
> stuff,
A picture of it would help...

> and it has the following written on it:
>
> AVAG CO BEPSIG
Of course, it probably isn't any "real" language,
though it does mimic some real coin inscriptions.
Without actually seeing it, I suppose it could be
a toy, it could be a jeton, it could be an
outright fake.

> The only other ones I found had Spanish on
> them.   This left me with several questions:
>
> (1) Is it a conlang?   (Probably not.)
Who knows!? :)

> (2) Is it a real language? (Anyone?)
Most Western coins were inscribed in Latin,
Greek, Russian or some other Slavic language. You
get German, French, Romanian, etc. rather later.
It doesn't look like any of those.

> (3) Is it a jumble?
Probably.

> (3a) If it is, is it just the letters in the
> word that were mixed up, or were
> the letters of the whole phrase mixed up, and
> then pieced together to form
> "words"?
Probably not. They don't appear to easily spell
anything intelligibly coinish in any of the
common languages (except Latin).

> AVAG CO BEPSIG
AVG is a common abbrev. for AVGustus/a; CO is
usually COmes (count/ess). BEPSIG could be
anything. It's not too far from BO.REG. (Queen of
the Bohemians), for example.

> (3b) Again, if it's a jumble, is it a jumble in
> Spanish or English (or something else?!)?
It seems best to mimic Latin inscriptions.

> (4) Is it just random, made-up stuff done by
> the manufacturer, signifying
> nothing (from China, incidentally)?
Ah. Does it say "Made in China", then? Toy coins
usually make more sense. I have one that says
"TALI DIGATT SIS MES PLUCTUARI NEOT" and "KENIG
DCR AAEL Z PRANA : DRS NIDhER" Almost looks like
Latin.

> (5) Is there some program that could tease this
> out automatically?
Not likely. Sounds like someone copied an
inscription off of a picture that he couldn't
really read. If it looks like a medieval or
ancient coin, that is not unlikely, as the
characters are often difficult to make out.

> That's it from me.   I'm working on a website.
>  It turns out not to be that tough.   And fun!
Put up a scan of that token! I'm all curious,
now!

Padraic.


=====
Et ters davigaint deck y yaithes 'n el drichlend le Roy Markon;
y cestes d' ils yspoil morès y ddew chaumèz e-z-el tons l' organón.




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