Latin, anyone? Russian? Old PA date stone

[Ashful]

Found his hiding under the original lime stucco, on the 1770's wing of my house. I am very close to having full proof that this house was actually built atop an older 1730's house that stood on this site.

Translation, anyone?



Everyone probably recognizes the backwards N from Cyrillic (Russian), but I believe it was also used in old Latin, and being this is a date stone on an old Pennsylvania house... I'm kinda doubting it's Russian.

The date is pretty clear, A1775:

 

[SpaceBus]

Found his hiding under the original lime stucco, on the 1770's wing of my house. I am very close to having full proof that this house was actually built atop an older 1730's house that stood on this site.

Translation, anyone?

View attachment 243262

Everyone probably recognizes the backwards N from Cyrillic (Russian), but I believe it was also used in old Latin, and being this is a date stone on an old Pennsylvania house... I'm kinda doubting it's Russian.

The date is pretty clear, A1775:

View attachment 243263

I am leaning more Bulgarian or Polish than Russian. I was fluent once upon a time.

 

[Ashful]

Thanks! It might be possible. The backwards N is a definite fit, and some Bulgarian scripts contain the funky lower-case d. It's also likely this is a name, and not a word, as it was made to be hidden. This part of the house was likely covered in lime stucco as soon as it was built, we have several pieces of evidence indicating that.

This was a Mennonite community, and while that movement was big in Poland and Ukraine (possibly Bulgaria, as well), the evidence I see of them emigrating from those areas isn't beginning until 10 - 15 years later.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Found his hiding under the original lime stucco, on the 1770's wing of my house. I am very close to having full proof that this house was actually built atop an older 1730's house that stood on this site.

Translation, anyone?

View attachment 243262

Everyone probably recognizes the backwards N from Cyrillic (Russian), but I believe it was also used in old Latin, and being this is a date stone on an old Pennsylvania house... I'm kinda doubting it's Russian.

The date is pretty clear, A1775:

View attachment 243263

Send the pictures to the Language Center at the University of Pennsylvania. They might be able to help. I googled the words (I can't figure out the 1st letter of the word on top) and I think it might be old Russian. The Feasterville area had a Russian population one time.

 

[Ashful]

Send the pictures to the Language Center at the University of Pennsylvania. They might be able to help. I googled the words (I can't figure out the 1st letter of the word on top) and I think it might be old Russian. The Feasterville area had a Russian population one time.

The first letter is an upside-down V.

I'll look into U.Penn if the few feelers I already have out fail to turn a result. Thanks!

 

[Ashful]

Just received word from a local historian, who is also multi-lingual. She suggested it might be a conjunction or abbreviation of the first and last name of the builder, such as ANDreas ZImmeRman. She actually has one such example on a building right up the road from us, from a different builder, but using this technique to mark his work.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

The first letter is an upside-down V.

I'll look into U.Penn if the few feelers I already have out fail to turn a result. Thanks!

Have a few of these and before you know it, you'll have your answer.

 

[Ashful]

Have a few of these and before you know it, you'll have your answer.
View attachment 243273

You know, I’ve never warmed up to old Ras. I love so many imperial stouts, but that one just doesn’t suit me.

I just sent the photos off to a colleague of mine in Russia. We will see what he has to say. Gotta see if I can remember any contacts in Poland.

 

[SpaceBus]

As a person who has memorized the Russian alphabet, that's not Russian. In Russian the V sound is uppercase B. The I sound is the backwards N. Russian has letter that looks like the English letters V or I, but they do use the sounds. Ukrainian is like Russian, but 40% different and their alphabet is also a bit different. Also look into other Slavic languages.

 

[SpaceBus]

For reference

 

[Ashful]

The second word, Aᥢdzi, could be Polish for "and today". It could also be Estonian, Latvian, or Lithuanian for "A deep". In Polish, it's "And today..."

A local historian speculated that the first word might be the conjunction of the builder's first and last names, as another local building of similar age has a date stone containing a conjunction of that builder's name. This could be ANDreas ZImmeRman. Seems like a stretch, but like I said, another local building has a proven link to that convention.

What's interesting is that it translates from these languages (Estonian, Latvian, or Lithuanian) into Russian as "goes up". The reason this is interesting is that this date stone is about 12 feet off the ground, in a corner of the house that has always been theorized to be part of an earlier structure that stood here in the 1730's.

So, whether it translates to "and today 1775" or "Andreas Zimmerman goes up 1775", that would agree with the notion that this is the point from which the 1775 addition began.

The mason who found this stone during stucco removal has been doing this for over 40 years, and this is only the second date stone he has found on a structure of this age. It is apparently very uncommon to find them on 18th century homes, date stones on homes didn't become popular until the mid-19th century. I have to wonder what prompted this builder to put this text and date on this stone, the addition theory may be it.

 

[begreen]

It's been a while but I can still somewhat read Russian and it is definitely not cyrillic. It would be interesting to see if there was an Andreas Zimmerman in the area at the time.