Quiz: what language is this ... ?

[Smiles]

I recognize Thai script now quite readily when I see it here and there in Canada ( admittedly, not eaxactly everywhere :blackeye: ). This of course was not always the case when I was a Thailand virgin.

Here's a language example which is a first for me. Can anyone recognize it right off, like you probably can with Thai?:

(Hope this comes out on your computer)

தமிழில் தேடு
இணையத் தேடு கருவி


It has kind of the overall 'feel' of Thai script, but it certainly is not. However I would not be surprised if it was related somehow in the distant past.
3 or 4 Beer Singha (or your choice) to the first person to identify it. (Details to be arranged later)


Cheers ...

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[Bob]

I saw some funny script like that up in Laos once.....sorta looked like Thai but was Lao. So that's my wild guess. My second wild guess is Khmer (also somewhat similar).

My difficulty in reading Thai occasionally is that I learned it (to the extent I did) based on a couple of fonts recognizable to me. When they use some fancy or old fashioned font, I have difficulty in figuring out even what the damn letter is.

... all those script forms are based on Sanskrit

Ok, not Thai, Lao, Khmer or Burmese - unless its an ancient version of one of them.

My first guess is Pali, the ancient stuff in the Bhuddist texts.
2nd guess is Tibetan
3rd guess is Mongolian (but I think they write that up and down like chinese and not side to side)

[Smiles]

Thanks for the brave attempts, but as yet, all in vain . . .

A hint: "2 countries, same religion ... yet not as simple as that"

Carry on ...

[Bob]

Out of the blue: Tamil.

[Smiles]

YOOOOO BOB ... YOU GOT IT!!!! Tamil.

Beers on me ... in 2012 when you're next in Thailand :geek: :geek:
(Was the hint too obvious?)


Cheers ...

[Bob]

No, I didn't even get the hint (a bit slow tonight).

Now, I'd like to tell you that I researched this mightily and/or that I divined the answer in a vision. No, much simpler than that. I just pasted your funny looking letters in my google slot and a bunch of Tamil sites came up. Simple as that....lol.

Nevertheless.............you owe me bigtime and I shall collect on some future good day and time.....


Edit: If you want to see their alphabet and some attempt at a pronunciation guide, visit:
http://www.ancientscripts.com/images/tamil.gif

Second Edit: Applying the sounds to the letters you wrote, it appears you have found the refrain in the old Witch Doctor's song (you know, "Oo ee, oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang").

Well the "Caka" period in Indonesia witnesses the introduction of the Sanskrit language and the pallawa script by the Indian prince Aji Caka (78 AD), but the Devanagari script of the sanskrit was used at the same time as seen on paracasthies (stone and copper inscriptions of the period) however it looks nothing like sanskrit or Devangari, so I am going to take a wild guess and say, though from the same area, not the same family, and its spread must have been by indentured labour (kindly put) from the slave traders the good old Brits, so it must be Tamil script........LOL

Tamil, as used for the language of the same name spoken in South India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. Please give all booze tokens to Pearl if she is still amongst us and not at the bottom of Wellington harbour.

Fuck off Bob, beating me by one minute, you obviously cheated, you used google? So I declare myself the unanimous winner.