# Unknown language: كعتتطيطوس مطيو



## Zeynelabidin

*Moderator note:*
*As these words are not Arabic, I moved this thread here, hoping that someone would recognize their meaning.*

Hello guys,

Does anybody know what the Arabic inscription on the Yataghan (=Turkish sword from Ottoman period) means?


I recognize the following letters: كعتتطيطوس مطيو

Could it be a name? I can read the name Titus, after the first four letters.


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## Mahaodeh

Are you sure it's Arabic? It could be Ottoman Turkish, it could be Persian, it could be Urdu; there are a number of languages it could be. I don't recognise anything and it does not seem Arabic at all.


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## Faylasoof

This inscription doesn't look anything like Arabic, as Mahaodeh says; nor is it Persian or Urdu. I don't recognise anything from the latter languages - even when you break up the words.

Ottoman Turkish is a possiblity as it did use  ط and ق etc., especially in Arabic loan words, but also in Turkish words. Modern Turkish,on the other hand, seems to have got rid of these  as well as the Arabic-Persian element that was common in the Ottoman language.


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## Interprete

And the "Matyu" sounds like Matthew Kaatatatitos souns Greek


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## BP.

Definitely Greek influence there, but I'm not sure it's even a semantically-correct word. Maybe a name. Matthew makes sense as the first name.


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## Zeynelabidin

Thank you all for your replies.

I found that matayu means Matthew in Greek, as Interprete suggested. So, we then get "titos matthayu" (Τιτος Ματθαίου), but what to make out of the first four letters: (kaf-3ayn-ta-ta), which are connected to the word titos?

Any Greeks around here who can help us out?


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## Zeynelabidin

Can a moderator please move this topic to the Greek section? I would like to get responses from people who know Greek.

I would like to know whether the word Ματθαίου is in the genitive case. Can anyone confirm this? 
And what can it denote in this context?


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## Erutuon

Yes, Ματθαίου is the genitive singular of Ματθαῖος.


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