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Any linguists out there?

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Auldjin

40 Cal
Joined
Oct 1, 2020
Messages
211
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547
Location
Scotland
This is a "knee blunderbuss" that is in need of some attention. Such pieces are usually just described as "Ottoman". The engraving on the lock is not Turkish (old or new). It bears some resemblance to Cyrillic but is not Russian (old or new). Can anyone identify it?
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Your pistol dos'e strongly suggest its not just a jumble of letters that might pass for an illiterate in European writing takeing it for European work & looks a nice pistol .Good luck with your quest
Regards Rudyard
 
The closest I could find in a search of languages of the region is Bulgarian. The characters look close, though not exact, but it could be the characters on this gun are just highly stylized (much like the "Gothic" English font). I may be wrong, but it could be something to look into.
 
Here are a couple responses I received which mostly confirm my own thinking. I'll elaborate further on the next post.

"The only letter that is distinguishably Cyrillic is the backward N which is equivalent to the Latin I. The lower case i and o are common to Greek and Latin miniscule."

"Hi Rick,

I'm afraid to say that is the usual nonsense . gibberish, seen on many Eastern locks."

1611507808746.png
 
Here are a couple responses I received which mostly confirm my own thinking. I'll elaborate further on the next post.

"The only letter that is distinguishably Cyrillic is the backward N which is equivalent to the Latin I. The lower case i and o are common to Greek and Latin miniscule."

"Hi Rick,

I'm afraid to say that is the usual nonsense . gibberish, seen on many Eastern locks."

Interesting. I wonder what the purpose of such gibberish was? It's like one of us putting something like "XZikYb" on the lock of a gun we'd built. What purpose would that serve, other than to have something inscribed on the lock? Was it some kind of regional stylistic "thing" at the time perhaps? An attempt to conceal the guns true origin? Something else? 🤔
 
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