A question to all #linguistics enthusiasts in the fediverse.
The picture shows one of artist Abdullah Al Saadi's Diaries, exhibited at the 2017 Venice Biennale of Art. He was born and lives in the UAE.
My question is: What language is it written in? Most of his diaries are in Arabic, but this does not look like it. It's written from right to left, so it's not Ethiopic or Tifinagh either. Any clues?
@balrogboogie @miramarco could it be invented perhaps?
@charlyblack @balrogboogie That's what I'm thinking! I just found a short biography of the artist that mentions “the invention of new alphabets” among his activities! http://aichitriennale.jp/2016/english/artist/abdullahalsaadi.html
@miramarco yes exactly, I was reading something similar too.. but I'm surprised by the layer of mystery, like it's not mentioned at all in any official Biennale's material.. intriguing @balrogboogie
@miramarco
Some characters look like ancient greek to me.
Don't they explain it ? Or could it be some kind of secret alphabet (like leonardo da vinci)?
@CountZero The curators didn't explain it, also because it was only one scroll out of 39, while the others were clearly written in Arabic. They mentioned the Dead Sea Scrolls as the inspiration for the work, but I feel like it doesn't help much. What drives me mad is that I can't find any mention of this anywhere on the Internet 😮 Yeah, I also think it can be a secret alphabet – apparently the artist likes creating new ones!
@miramarco it seems to share some characters with brahmi, but there are differences too. i hope you get an answer, i'm curious what it is too!