Attention, DU Smarties! Can you identify/translate the language on this?

[elehhhhna]

[whistle]

1. Georgian

[elehhhhna]

3. nuh UH! Are you kidding?

[whistle]

16. Well I'm not sure but I figured with the conflict this was your way of opening

...up a discussion about the culture and history of that region

<snip>
Language

Overview of the Georgian language and Alphabet

Language and Nationalism

First Printed Georgian Book


Overview

Despite of some superficial resemblance and intermingling, The Georgians, ethnically and linguistically, are unrelated to the Indo-European origins. They form a group of their own, named "Ibero-Caucasian", "South Caucasian" or "Kartvelian" (the latter is the Georgians' own name for their nation). Professor Nikolai Marr, a prominent scholar of the Caucasian languages, brought into use the term "Japhetic" to designate the Georgians together with other surviving remnants of the ethnic group which he and other scholars believed to have inhabited the Mediterranean basin before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans on the scene circa II millenium BCE. Of this group of people, known as "Proto-Iberians", the Georgians and the Basques (in Spain) are the sole survivors, though the extinct Etruscans in Italy may have belonged to a kindred family. Certain affinities between the Basque and Georgian languages, as well as resemblances in popular customs, traditions and legends help to confirm this reconstruction of their ancient past. The languages of both peoples are unrelated to any of the Indo-European or Semitic tongues.

Georgian language origin belongs to the Paleocaucasian Ethnolinguistic Family, the representative people of which are the direct descendents of the oldest population of Caucasus. This Family is divided into three branches:

1) Western Caucasian, or Abkhaz-Adighian - unifies modern Abkhazians, Abazians, Adighians, Cherkezians and Kabardians;

2) Eastern Caucasian, or Chechen-Dagestanian - Chechenians, Ingushs and Dagestanians (Avarians, Lezgians, Darguelians, Laks and etc.);

3) Southern, or Kartvelian- represented by Georgian people, which consist of three main subethnical groups - Karts, Zans or Mengrel-Chans and Svans. Division of the previous Kartvelian language into Georgian, Zanian and Svanian branches begins in the III-II mill. B.C.

The Georgian language, the language spoken by Georgians, is the state language of Georgia. Georgian is the only language in the Ibero-Caucasian family having ancient script. The most ancient writings date back to the 5th century AD, though there exists a sound hypothesis allowing for the earlier existence of the literary language. The Georgian script is an independent, unique system, conveying the sound composition of the Georgian speech and forming the written and printed symbols of the national Georgian language.

The development of the Georgian alphabet can be broken into three stages: Asomtavruli (unknown dates), Nuskha-Khutsuri (from the 9th century, still used by the Georgians Orthodox Church), and Mkhedruli (contemporary Georgian script, from the 11th century).

Both the ancient and modern alphabets are extremely simple, precious and economic. Each sound has its corresponding symbol and vice versa. The Georgian alphabet includes 33 symbols (5 vowels and 28 consonants). The shape of the letters is absolutely unique and can not be compared to any other existing alphabet. The Georgian alphabet is among the 14 existing ones throughout the world.

<MORE with samples of the script>

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://rustaveli.tripod.com/language.html&h=756&w=510&sz=15&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=qY92CTVhtONfBM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGeorgian%2Balphabet%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DX%26as_qdr%3Dall

[elehhhhna]

18. lol you flatter me. I just bought it off overstock for $20.00 (a steal!)

but wonder where it's coming from.

Could be Georgia.

[Canuckistanian]

2. Is that "Agatha Christie" in Russian Cyrillic?

I'm not sure.

[BurtWorm]

5. It's some kind of Cyrillic.

And it does say Agatha Christie.

[Canuckistanian]

Yes, I see it now

It's "Agata Kristi", probably a slavic pronunciation of her name.

[knitter4democracy]

23. That's what I'm seeing. It's Russian.

Why Agatha Christie, I'm not sure.

[eshfemme]

4. Is that a perfume bottle? n/t

[gateley]

6. Yeah --Opium by Christian Dior

Maybe that's what the line at the bottom means? Christian Dior?

[elehhhhna]

8. YVES SAN LAURENT, you silly gateley! Opium is the best scent ever

and was invented by the inimitable Yves. Gol. Barbarian.


:rofl:

[gateley]

9. Oh yeah! (I was thinking of Poison!)

I should have remembered about Opium. I used to wear it and it would take the polish off my fingernails. :) :hi:

[elehhhhna]

17. ...snowy city evening, stepping into a cab in a cloud of opium,

hells, and fur coat. Mmmmmm.

[asjr]

12. I love Opium!

[elehhhhna]

15. Me too, but it's not as spicy as it was when if first came out ...

and the bottle's gotten cheesier, too.

[BurtWorm]

13. Canuckistanian is right

It's Agatha Christie in Russian (or some slavic language written with Cyrillic characters).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3771271#3771299

[Bear down under]

19. Here's a genuine Opium bottle to compare

You see it has 'Yves Saint-Laurent' in Roman capitals.

So, it seems the OP's bottle is of fake Opium, and the faker has substituted a bit of gobbledegook in the hope of avoiding being sued by the YSL organisation for forgery, while still hoping that purchasers will believe they've got a fabulous bargain.

It does appear to be 'Agatha Christie' written in Cyrillic characters. Naughty; but I suppose he figures that as Dame Agatha died in 1976 she is unlikely to sue.

Genuine or no, does it smell nice?

[TexasObserver]

7. Turkish, I'd say

[Canuckistanian]

10. Turks don't use Cyrillic letters

They use the same letters that we do, with accent marks for special letters.

[elehhhhna]

11. I was wondering about Turkish.

[seemslikeadream]

14. ...

[alfredo]

20. It's drunken Highland Park Armenian. I can recognize it anywhere.

[SoCalDem]

21. Agatha Christie a la Cyrillic alphabet

actually Agata Christie...

why? :shrug:

[Marr]

22. Obviously it's Atatakpunctunese.

I mean sheesh. C'mon, n00b.

[TroglodyteScholar]

24. Agata Kristi is a Russian rock group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agata_Kristi

And Opium is one of their albums, apparently.

[RNdaSilva]

25. Russian Komi

Agatha Christie