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December 17[edit]

What language is this in[edit]

what language is this in — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.169.153.34 (talk) 22:50, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Latin? Looks like it says "Paschalis Romanus", but with Chinese-looking squiggles. Whether that is real Chinese, I don't know. Adam Bishop (talk) 22:58, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

They could be fragments of seal-style Chinese characters, but whether a Chinese-knowledgeable person could assemble anything meaningful out them, I have no idea... AnonMoos (talk) 23:15, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The decorative elements don't look like any of the radicals or other character elements that I've ever seen in Chinese scripts. However, the 'Roman' parts of some symbols are written in a way that violates the stroke order rules, but the decorative parts are not. However, this might be a coincidence, as the decorative parts are fairly repetitive. They don't look much like Hangul either. Matt's talk 15:43, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

M.R.Forrester -- the thing in the middle of the "o" looks kind of like the seal script version of the character for tree 木 -- see image File:木-seal.svg. The thing to the lower left of the "l" also resembles a seal-script element I think I've seen before, but it would probably take me a while to track it down... AnonMoos (talk) 16:10, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The element to the lower left of the "l" looks a little bit like File:戈-seal.svg. That's obviously not quite it, but it's as close as I can come without doing intensive research... AnonMoos (talk) 16:56, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This would seem to be confirmed by the only other file uploaded by that user, helpfully labelled "File:Paschalis_Romanus.jpg". Apparently a real medieval person existed with the name Paschalis Romanus but I don't think he is connected to this image... Adam Bishop (talk) 23:01, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I bet these images were uploaded with the intention of being what Wikimedia Commons calls "User logos", but they don't appear to be in use as such... AnonMoos (talk) 23:15, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

To my eye, it seems to spell out "Poschotis Romonus" which is apparently meaningless. Alansplodge (talk) 09:05, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There's a little "tail" on the lower right of the a's. A slight difference from the "o". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:32, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Ah yes, quite right. Thank you User:Baseball Bugs. You would have thought that a fundamental requirement of any script would be that other people would be able to read it. Alansplodge (talk) 11:15, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The original uploader made just two edits, in 2010. It's kind of a long shot, but it's possible his email is still functional, and he could be asked where this thing came from. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:26, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't bet on it. I get the feeling that most of these questions posed by ip's are the last act of users at internet cafes before they get up and leave. Akld guy (talk) 19:22, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The two uploads were discussed in detail in 2010 on the German reference desk, together with de:Datei:Paschalis o romaios.jpg. --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 00:29, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's a design for a tattoo, called pasch.jpg, uploaded by a German user and the subject along with a Greek reflex of the phrase here https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Auskunft/Archiv/2010/Woche_49#Fortsetzung_der_Diskussion:_Schriftzug_als_Tattoo on German wikipedia. The OP can use Google Translate on that address and see what he gets. The language is Latin but the phrase's intended meaning is obscure, as at best it means Paschal Roman, if anything. The squiggles are just that; squiggles. μηδείς (talk) 04:24, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Paschalis means "having to do with Easter", but it or its Romance descendants can be a given name in some traditions. And at least a few of the squiggles strongly resemble fragments of Chinese seal script characters, as I pointed out above. AnonMoos (talk) 05:15, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, "paschal" means having to do with Easter. Of course the squiggles look Chinese. Lots of Westerners would think 我是個傻瓜 would be a cool tattoo. Ebola is exotic, as once was HIV. μηδείς (talk) 00:45, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]