Talk:Eduard Friedrich Ferdinand Beer

Gravestone inscription
could you help me solve a puzzle related to the Nabataean / Sinaitic inscriptions we were discussing? This article is about the decipherer of the script. I am trying to translate the inscription on his gravestone. I have copied over the inscription from the image into the image caption, using:
 * the explanation of the script as it was known when Beer died
 * The Nabataean unicode document
 * A Nabataean and Hebrew letter swap to convert the text to Hebrew

But the conversion doesn't make sense to me (other than the first word, Shalom). Onceinawhile (talk) 14:03, 6 April 2023 (UTC)


 * The first word is presumably "shelam" (or that's how it's pronounced in Biblical Aramaic anyway -- not sure what the Nabatean vowels were, or if anyone knows what the Nabatean vowels were). It's the Aramaic cognate and more or less functional equivalent to Hebrew "shalom".
 * The rest of the inscription, if I'm reading it correctly, is: Nun-Aleph-Resh Ayin-Beit-Mem Ayin-Mem-Yod-Qof-Shin Waw-Nun-Ayin-Mem Sade-Dalet-Yod-Qoph-Aleph.
 * Unfortunately, I don't have a general knowledge of Aramaic (only certain phonological and etymological connections with other languages).  Ayin-Mem-Yod-Qof means "deep" in Biblical Aramaic, but not sure where the Shin would come in.  Waw at the beginning of a word could be the conjunction "and".  The triconsonantal root Sade-Dalet-Qoph is used to form words meaning "righteousness, right action" in both Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic.  Sorry I couldn't help more... AnonMoos (talk) 06:55, 8 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you . That is good progress. Hopefully others will see this in the coming months / years and will help with the remaining questions. Onceinawhile (talk) 08:27, 8 April 2023 (UTC)