Indian script on British sword

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Matt,
Thank you for that detail, which gives better perspective on the dates in which these markings and serial numbers were used by Wilkinson. Its been quite some time since I collected British swords and that info is truly helpful. I believe if you can reach Robert Wilkinson-Latham who is on SFI he can help with the number and though the book you indicate was destroyed maybe he has other resources. I wish he was here on our forum

Interesting that this sword may well have Crimean associations, or at least been in use at the time. It is true that many British officers had Indian service at the time of the war, in fact Nolan, of Light Brigade fame had been in India prior to his attachment to the cavalry in the Crimea.

Thank you Ibrahiim for noting the read on the characters inscribed. I wonder if this could be an acronym or acrostic for some sort of motto or something related to the officers possible Indian service earlier or as indicated other connections.

All the best,
Jim

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Hi Matt,
Thank you for that detail, which gives better perspective on the dates in which these markings and serial numbers were used by Wilkinson. Its been quite some time since I collected British swords and that info is truly helpful. I believe if you can reach Robert Wilkinson-Latham who is on SFI he can help with the number and though the book you indicate was destroyed maybe he has other resources. I wish he was here on our forum

Interesting that this sword may well have Crimean associations, or at least been in use at the time. It is true that many British officers had Indian service at the time of the war, in fact Nolan, of Light Brigade fame had been in India prior to his attachment to the cavalry in the Crimea.

Thank you Ibrahiim for noting the read on the characters inscribed. I wonder if this could be an acronym or acrostic for some sort of motto or something related to the officers possible Indian service earlier or as indicated other connections.

All the best,
Jim

Thanks Jim~ It is so annoying as there are usually plenty of Indian people in here looking around ... I'm sure someone will turn up with the answer ...
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[olikara]

Ibrahim,

Don't be annoyed now ;-) This Indian person is here to help.

Matt:

1. The script should be read from the first photograph posted. Here the characters are placed correctly. The 2nd photograph has the characters upside-down. The 3 characters are from the Devnagiri script, commonly used to write Hindi and other North Indian languages. That being said Sanskrit also uses the same script.

2. Well, I am not a phoneticist and so I will not read them like a phoneticist. They read as 'E-F-EE'. So if I read the characters as a word I will read it as 'Ifee'. The 'E' as the sound of e in Pit. The 'F' as the sound of f in Fun. And the 'EE' as the sound of the longer e in ''eat' or 'feet'

So now if I were you and I'd look for the initials E-F-I because EE may be interpreted as the sound I. Or I'd look for someone his mom called 'Iffy/Ifee'.

[Matt Easton]

Many thanks Olikara, this is very useful.
I will let you all know if I find any connections.

Thanks!
Matt

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by olikara

Ibrahim,

Don't be annoyed now ;-) This Indian person is here to help.

Matt:

1. The script should be read from the first photograph posted. Here the characters are placed correctly. The 2nd photograph has the characters upside-down. The 3 characters are from the Devnagiri script, commonly used to write Hindi and other North Indian languages. That being said Sanskrit also uses the same script.

2. Well, I am not a phoneticist and so I will not read them like a phoneticist. They read as 'E-F-EE'. So if I read the characters as a word I will read it as 'Ifee'. The 'E' as the sound of e in Pit. The 'F' as the sound of f in Fun. And the 'EE' as the sound of the longer e in ''eat' or 'feet'

So now if I were you and I'd look for the initials E-F-I because EE may be interpreted as the sound I. Or I'd look for someone his mom called 'Iffy/Ifee'.

No I just looked it up in a dictionary ... and matched it against the Hindu script... i P ii .....I wonder if that was a regimental short form...initials only?... As you say it looks like IFFY...

(It looks a bit iffy to me !! ha !!)

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]