orichalcum: (Obama)
orichalcum ([personal profile] orichalcum) wrote2008-02-05 11:43 am
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This is only a test.

Just to see how hard a task I'm giving students:


If you were asked to figure out the letters in this image, what would you come up with?(As many as possible.)

[identity profile] ladybird97.livejournal.com 2008-02-05 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
with the disclaimer that I've actually taken a class in paleography...

HIC FxIMxS xxN NOS SINII FINII SODAxxS NOMINA SI

How did I do? :)

[identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com 2008-02-05 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Hic Fuimus cari nos sine fine sodales nomina si.

Here we are two dear men, comrades without a limit (unconditional?), if you [quaeris] wish our names (this is the mostly lost bit),they were Caius and Aulus.

I thought you would like it.

[identity profile] ladybird97.livejournal.com 2008-02-05 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah! I thought that might be 'sodales'. And the representation of 'e' seems to have been what was messing me up. Thanks for the real transcription - I do like the passage. Yay for friends :)

[identity profile] emilymorgan.livejournal.com 2008-02-06 06:21 am (UTC)(link)
I'm glad I'm not the only one who turned all the e's into double i's. :) Ori, I think the answer is: very hard!

[identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com 2008-02-06 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, but in groups of five for a brief activity, where the goal is not success but teaching them to see What It's Like, I think it'll still work?

Then I give them the nice Times New Roman with spaces.

[identity profile] meepodeekin.livejournal.com 2008-02-06 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
If I were a student, I'd like it.

[identity profile] emilymorgan.livejournal.com 2008-02-05 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
HIC FINxS [wtf!!]Nx DNO NOS SINII FINII SODANIS NOMINx xI

(trying not to look at ladybird's, though I saw enough to steal her transcription system.)

Obviously I'm very very wrong on some of those! Also, I'm not convinced that some of those letters weren't in fact pictures of little brooms.

[identity profile] karakara98.livejournal.com 2008-02-05 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
It would drive me totally bonkers. This should surprise noone given the dyslexia, but thought I'd chime in. I can't even tell if it's Latin or Greek and I've taken them both (though egads, it's been 10+ years since I've attempted to read either). I'm only coming up with a bunch of lambdas in the last word.

[identity profile] orichalcum.livejournal.com 2008-02-05 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I hadn't thought about that - lucky for you you were born after punctuation and spaces!

[identity profile] a-dodecahedron.livejournal.com 2008-02-06 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
My first guess:

HIC-F?ILL?S CLSV D?O-NOS-SINII FINII SODL?IIS NOLLINA-SI

(where L is lambda, not L)

Now I realize I was mistaking each M for two lambdas.