Obscure Language Game

[goofy]

at fravaxshyâ nû gûshôdûm nû sraotâ ýaêcâ asnât ýaêcâ dûrât ishathâ nû îm vîspâ cithrê zî mazdånghô-dûm nôit daibitîm dush-sastish ahûm merãshyât akâ varanâ dregvå hizvå âveretô

Is this a romanization?

[Alexius]

at fravaxshyâ nû gûshôdûm nû sraotâ ýaêcâ asnât ýaêcâ dûrât ishathâ nû îm vîspâ cithrê zî mazdånghô-dûm nôit daibitîm dush-sastish ahûm merãshyât akâ varanâ dregvå hizvå âveretô

Is this a romanization?

Yes, it is

[eSOANEM]

ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn. e prñnawatẽ hanadaza hrppi ladi ehbi setideime.

The use of tildes on the vowels and n's makes it look like the orthography is based on some combination of Portugese and Spanish. I don't think Galician marks nasalised vowels (because they're not phonemic) so I suspect it's not that. This makes me think it's something South American and, given the apparent Portugese influence probably Amazonian. Unfortunately, that really doesn't help much

[steewi]

The best I can come up with for the ones at the moment (without Googlecheating):

at fravaxshyâ nû gûshôdûm nû sraotâ ýaêcâ asnât ýaêcâ dûrât ishathâ nû îm vîspâ cithrê zî mazdånghô-dûm nôit daibitîm dush-sastish ahûm merãshyât akâ varanâ dregvå hizvå âveretô

My first guess is Old Persian, because of the long vowels, the -xsh- combination and the apparent semitic plural on daibitîm, but the vowels with tilde and ringed as don't work.

Instead, I'll guess Avestan. It seems to be Indo-Aryan of some sort, and it's not Sanskrit transcription, so that makes it seem right. (But then, for all I know, it's Bactrian).

ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn. e prñnawatẽ hanadaza hrppi ladi ehbi setideime.

This one, I agree that Amazonian is a good guess, I'd say Guaraní, but I'd know that immediately. I don't think it's Pirahã or Tariana, either, which are the other Amazonian languages I know anything about. Hixkaryana, perhaps?

[eSOANEM]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not Pirahã, it looks like it's got way too many phonemes for that.

[Alexius]

The best I can come up with for the ones at the moment (without Googlecheating):

at fravaxshyâ nû gûshôdûm nû sraotâ ýaêcâ asnât ýaêcâ dûrât ishathâ nû îm vîspâ cithrê zî mazdånghô-dûm nôit daibitîm dush-sastish ahûm merãshyât akâ varanâ dregvå hizvå âveretô

My first guess is Old Persian, because of the long vowels, the -xsh- combination and the apparent semitic plural on daibitîm, but the vowels with tilde and ringed as don't work.

Instead, I'll guess Avestan. It seems to be Indo-Aryan of some sort, and it's not Sanskrit transcription, so that makes it seem right. (But then, for all I know, it's Bactrian).

Yay, thread resurrection! And that one is Avestan.

[drego642]

Looks like the last person who got it right seems not to have posted a text to continue. I'd like to keep this going, if that'd be alright. Judging by the discussions in this thread, I don't think this will be very difficult for many people here to guess:

Spoiler:

L-Unjoni hija mibnija fuq il-valuri ta' rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem, ta' libertà, ta' demokrazija, ta' ugwaljanza, ta' l-istat tad-dritt u tar-rispett għad-drittijiet tal-bniedem, inklużi d-drittijiet ta' persuni li jagħmlu parti minn minoranzi. Dawn il-valuri huma komuni għall-Istati Membri f'soċjetà karatterizzata mill-pluraliżmu, in-non-diskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, il-ġustizzja, is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel.

[eSOANEM]

It clearly has significant borrowing from romance languages but the use of its consonants doesn't quite seem right (the final q, the apostrophes (presumably glottal stops) and the need to distinguish between different "h"s) so I'm guessing it's not actually romance. The fact it has a lot of different consonants, including it seems uvular and glottal stops and multiple "h" sounds makes me think of Maltese (which is an arabic language that has been in close contact with romance languages for most of its history).

Edit:

contributing:

Juohkehaš lea vuoigaduvvon buot daid vuoigatvuoðaide ja friddjavuoðaide, mat dán julggaštusas leat namahuvvon, almmá mange vealahaga, náli, ivnni, sohkabeali, giela, oskku, politihkalaš dahje eará miellaguottu, náššuvnnalaš dahje sosiálalaš surggiideami, opmodaga, riegádeami dahje eará dilálasvuoða dáfus.

Orruneatnama dahje -guovllu politihkalaš, lágaválddálaš dahje internáššuvnnalaš dilli maiddá ii galgga váikkuhit vealahusa, lehkos dat eanan dahje guovlu iešstivrejeaddji dahje earáid geahču vuolde dahje muđui mange láhkái earáid hálddus stivrra dáfus.

[Carlington]

I'd agree with eSOANEM's assessment of Maltese, for drego's contribution/
As for eSOANEM's mystery language, assuming it's not a conlang, I can't remember if those are allowed in here, the only living language I know that uses ð is Icelandic. So, assuming it's a living language, that'd be my guess. If it's not a living language, then it could be from anywhere in the family of Old Norse.

[eSOANEM]

It's a living natural language (if I do post a conlang on here, I'll make sure to tell you guys that beforehand). It's not icelandic though.

[drego642]

It clearly has significant borrowing from romance languages but the use of its consonants doesn't quite seem right (the final q, the apostrophes (presumably glottal stops) and the need to distinguish between different "h"s) so I'm guessing it's not actually romance. The fact it has a lot of different consonants, including it seems uvular and glottal stops and multiple "h" sounds makes me think of Maltese (which is an arabic language that has been in close contact with romance languages for most of its history).

Entirely correct.

I have no idea of yours, so I can only guess where it may come from by some of its features. A couple of those words seem Finnic to me, but I can't think of any such language which uses the caron and acute accent diacritical marks, much less the letter eth. I could probably find the language if I actively researched it by its features using Wikipedia (to be honest, I can't remember right now whether or not this is against the rules of this game, so I'll assume it is), but for now, all I can guess is that it's one of the Finno-Ugric languages or that it's otherwise related to the Uralic language family, and is spoken somewhere in/near Finland or Estonia, perhaps closer to Scandinavia?

I'd agree with eSOANEM's assessment of Maltese, for drego's contribution/
As for eSOANEM's mystery language, assuming it's not a conlang, I can't remember if those are allowed in here, the only living language I know that uses ð is Icelandic. So, assuming it's a living language, that'd be my guess. If it's not a living language, then it could be from anywhere in the family of Old Norse.

There's also Faroese, but it doesn't look to me like it's a Scandinavian language. Also assuming it's a living language myself, I'm thinking it's a Finnic language with a small population and it's one that I've never heard of or encountered before.

[eSOANEM]

I have no idea of yours, so I can only guess where it may come from by some of its features. A couple of those words seem Finnic to me, but I can't think of any such language which uses the caron and acute accent diacritical marks, much less the letter eth. I could probably find the language if I actively researched it by its features using Wikipedia (to be honest, I can't remember right now whether or not this is against the rules of this game, so I'll assume it is), but for now, all I can guess is that it's one of the Finno-Ugric languages or that it's otherwise related to the Uralic language family, and is spoken somewhere in/near Finland or Estonia, perhaps closer to Scandinavia?

It is a Uralic language but is not Finnic.

[Carlington]

Oop, I was ninja'd twice and my guess is no longer valid.

EDIT: Uralic, but not Finnic. Maybe one of the languages spoken in Lappland. (I don't remember if these are called "Lappish"?)

[drego642]

Whelp, I'm stumped... For the sake of guessing, I'm going to say it's some dialect of Sami that uses the letter "ð" rather than"đ", but I have no idea what it would be called, specifically.

[eSOANEM]

It was indeed Sami (I just pulled it from the ohchr page so I'm not quite sure what dialect they used).

[drego642]

Ah okay, neat. I'll try again:

Die how cirj bin fol, en sal gaw ha calluf. Die boricka ka marro en caló over die bergi, mi ka stier die jung fo lo fang die. Die farki bin na cot, mi lolo suk bateta-tow fo jeet fo die. Een cuj ka kom over die barcad en ka destroi alga die jung plantsoon; wen mi fang die mi sal drag die na fort, mak die eigenaer betal. Mi lolo na taphus, mi lolo suk stekki sowed gut fo mi goj na pot.

[eSOANEM]

Definitely looks very german-ish but the j's and the double vowels add a kind of dutch-ish flavour to me. There some words which seem pretty English too (mainly destroi). Possibly a colonial pidgin or creole?

[drego642]

Definitely looks very german-ish but the j's and the double vowels add a kind of dutch-ish flavour to me. There some words which seem pretty English too (mainly destroi). Possibly a colonial pidgin or creole?

It is indeed a creole.

[goofy]

No one has guessed this correctly yet:

ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn. e prñnawatẽ hanadaza hrppi ladi ehbi setideime.

[Alexius]

Not sure if SNF has come back to the thread.

As for the creole, could it be something from Dutch Indonesia? It looks Dutch, but isn't Dutch or Afrikaans.

[drego642]

Not sure if SNF has come back to the thread.

As for the creole, could it be something from Dutch Indonesia? It looks Dutch, but isn't Dutch or Afrikaans.

Yep, it's a Dutch-based creole, but is not spoken in Indonesia. Or anywhere for that matter; I should have specified this earlier, but it is an extinct language.

[Derek]

Well right now I'm on vacation in the US Virgin Islands, and I have learned (from Wikipedia) that they used to speak a Dutch-based creole here, until it was replaced by an English-based creole.

So, Negerhollands (Dutch-based creole formerly spoken on the US Virgin Islands)?

[drego642]

Well right now I'm on vacation in the US Virgin Islands, and I have learned (from Wikipedia) that they used to speak a Dutch-based creole here, until it was replaced by an English-based creole.

So, Negerhollands (Dutch-based creole formerly spoken on the US Virgin Islands)?

Precisely correct.

[Alexius]

Time for a new challenge, I think...

Wón je so na wčerawšim zeńdźenju hłowneho wuběrka w Podstupimje wobdźělił a naroki rady, zwjazane z nowelěrowanjom, rozłožił. W běhu zeńdźenja sej wón wuwědomi, zo njeje dźewjeć čłonow wuběrka zasadnje wo mjeńšinowych prawach w Europje wobhonjenych. Tak skedźbni jich na Europsku chartu regionalnych a mjeńšinowych rěčow kaž tež na wobłukowe dojednanje.

[gmalivuk]

Slavic of some form.

[drego642]

Well, I feel I can safely assume it's Slavic, due to its lexicon (especially words like "w" and "z"), its diacritical marks, and its affinity for large clusters of consonants... Oh, and there's also the characteristic "-owych" in a couple of places. But obviously the fact that it's in latin script rather than the Cyrillic alphabet narrows it down a bit (assuming it's not a transliteration).

I see both "l" and "ł" here. The only language I know of which uses these ("language" - not including IPA) is Polish, but I'm familiar enough with that language to know that it doesn't have characters like "č" and "š". Czech does, but I'm not sure if they have the "ł" as well.

It wouldn't happen to be a pidgin or a creole, would it? Is it a living language?

Not expecting to get it right, but just to get it out of the way, I'm going to guess: Czech?

*Edit: Also, since we have the OP here: is it cheating if I actively research to find out what language it is - not by googling the text, but by working off of hunches and educated guesses and using websites like wikipedia to try to determine what language it is by similarites in characters, lexicon, etc. - or do we pretty much have to have heard of it before and pull it out of our heads?

[skullturf]

The best guess I can make is "something related to Polish".

[gmalivuk]

Edit: Also, since we have the OP here: is it cheating if I actively research to find out what language it is - not by googling the text, but by working off of hunches and educated guesses and using websites like wikipedia to try to determine what language it is by similarites in characters, lexicon, etc. - or do we pretty much have to have heard of it before and pull it out of our heads?

What's happened so far seems to be that different prople contribute their thoughts on a sample until someone who knows enough guesses the right language. Sure, there's a bit of research that goes on, but I think we've generally been trying to avoid too much Wiki-ing or Googling, even if it's not to directly search for the excerpt.

[eSOANEM]

There have been a couple where I've been unable to resist googling it after I've posted my guesses. I did that with the negerhollands example. But whenever I've done that, I've made sure not to post on that clue again.

[Alexius]

It is a living language, and is neither Czech nor Polish.

[eSOANEM]

IIRC Slovene is sometimes written with ł. Maybe that?

[drego642]

Okay, I think I've found it, but I discovered it on wikipedia yesterday out of my own curiosity about this text, so I'll hold off on this one.

[Simius]

I don't know enough about slavic languages to comment, but I'll contribute another text, if that's OK.

[...] ar yeyis skiduṭes žur ǯuma. Didi na ṭu xolo ḳay ṭu ġnosi mcika kuġuṭu; Mažua ya guruni ṭu ḳočiš ṭḳebis ya ḳoči guruniš titen. Heya ṭui haya ṭui, va mičkin, ama mtel sefili na ṭu, komičkin. Arte didi ǯuma noġaša gyuluṭuši, uc̣u č̣uṭis: "ngeni kogyoḳoyu, mǯvas! Nanasti xua duboni!" edo igzalu. Sefilik mendoonu ngeni do nǯas koyonč̣u-ki, "buṭḳa č̣ḳomasenya" do.

It's a living language and written in this script (as well as one other script).

[Alexius]

IIRC Slovene is sometimes written with ł. Maybe that?

Given a certain Evil Space Emperor of our mutual acquaintance, did you really think I'd do Slovene?

[eSOANEM]

It was worth a shot

[steewi]

Wón je so na wčerawšim zeńdźenju hłowneho wuběrka w Podstupimje wobdźělił a naroki rady, zwjazane z nowelěrowanjom, rozłožił. W běhu zeńdźenja sej wón wuwědomi, zo njeje dźewjeć čłonow wuběrka zasadnje wo mjeńšinowych prawach w Europje wobhonjenych. Tak skedźbni jich na Europsku chartu regionalnych a mjeńšinowych rěčow kaž tež na wobłukowe dojednanje.

Slavic, looks like Polish, but not Polish. Perhaps Sorbian?

[...] ar yeyis skiduṭes žur ǯuma. Didi na ṭu xolo ḳay ṭu ġnosi mcika kuġuṭu; Mažua ya guruni ṭu ḳočiš ṭḳebis ya ḳoči guruniš titen. Heya ṭui haya ṭui, va mičkin, ama mtel sefili na ṭu, komičkin. Arte didi ǯuma noġaša gyuluṭuši, uc̣u č̣uṭis: "ngeni kogyoḳoyu, mǯvas! Nanasti xua duboni!" edo igzalu. Sefilik mendoonu ngeni do nǯas koyonč̣u-ki, "buṭḳa č̣ḳomasenya" do.

All of those dotted letters screams transcription, but I'm not getting much further than that. I can tell that it probably has case (ḳočiš and ḳoči), but mostly isn't showing much obvious morphology (repeated endings, recurring roots, etc.), and has a bunch of smaller word, suggesting isolating morphology. I can't even really suggest a language family. It has a vague Georgian look to it. Perhaps one of the less complicated Caucasian languages?

[gmalivuk]

Some of the words in the second one seem vaguely Turkish, but it's clearly not Turkish, and if steewi can't suggest a language family, I'm guessing not even Turkic.

So, maybe a Caucasian language spoken in or near Turkey?

[Iulus Cofield]

For no particular reason, I think it's some kind of Armenian.

[Alexius]

Wón je so na wčerawšim zeńdźenju hłowneho wuběrka w Podstupimje wobdźělił a naroki rady, zwjazane z nowelěrowanjom, rozłožił. W běhu zeńdźenja sej wón wuwědomi, zo njeje dźewjeć čłonow wuběrka zasadnje wo mjeńšinowych prawach w Europje wobhonjenych. Tak skedźbni jich na Europsku chartu regionalnych a mjeńšinowych rěčow kaž tež na wobłukowe dojednanje.

Slavic, looks like Polish, but not Polish. Perhaps Sorbian?

Yes, that's Sorbian.

[Simius]

[...] ar yeyis skiduṭes žur ǯuma. Didi na ṭu xolo ḳay ṭu ġnosi mcika kuġuṭu; Mažua ya guruni ṭu ḳočiš ṭḳebis ya ḳoči guruniš titen. Heya ṭui haya ṭui, va mičkin, ama mtel sefili na ṭu, komičkin. Arte didi ǯuma noġaša gyuluṭuši, uc̣u č̣uṭis: "ngeni kogyoḳoyu, mǯvas! Nanasti xua duboni!" edo igzalu. Sefilik mendoonu ngeni do nǯas koyonč̣u-ki, "buṭḳa č̣ḳomasenya" do.

All of those dotted letters screams transcription, but I'm not getting much further than that.

The language uses a modified latin alphabet, as well as a completely different script.

Edit: the dots are often written as apostrophes behind the letter instead. I could only find the text in this orthography (probably a transcription, I agree).

It has a vague Georgian look to it. Perhaps one of the less complicated Caucasian languages?

Some of the words in the second one seem vaguely Turkish, but it's clearly not Turkish, and if steewi can't suggest a language family, I'm guessing not even Turkic.

So, maybe a Caucasian language spoken in or near Turkey?

All good guesses.

For no particular reason, I think it's some kind of Armenian.

An Armenian dialect is spoken in the same area, but it's the wrong language family.