Obscure Language Game

[eSOANEM]

On erom beemal. Tuck me a tib o' deelo wok.

Is it an argot or jargon or is it some highly divergent regional dialect of English?

Because it seems to be utterly unintelligible as standard English (to me as a BrE speaker), I'm guessing the former at the moment. Is it thieve's cant (of the Elizabethan variety if you want a more specific answer)?

I'm going to give this one, as it is an argot/cryptolect based on English. In fact it's Rechtub Klat, which as the name suggests is the backslang-based argot used by Australian butchers. And given that, you should be able to translate it:

Ooh, that's great.

Repúnkun niśpa
kòtćaketá
kamuj otta
pirikano
itak an.
Kivá ne jakne
tan śompaj
eápkas akka.
Piráturu kotan
koápkas akka
epetćiu sakno
ápkaś jákne
a-koro kotan
aeśćilam kusu néna.

This looks like it might be Austronesian more than anything else...

It's not Austronesian (and going down the language family route may not help too much).

Ok, I'm out of sensible guesses for Indo-Aryan languages (unless it's really very obscure) so I'm guessing it's Dravidian. Tamil seems a bit too obvious once people have narrowed it down to Dravidian for that. I'm going to guess Kannada because IIRC, the region it's spoken is one of the most heavily Muslim parts of Southern India.

It is Dravidian, but it's not Tamil or Kannada.

In that case I suppose Telugu is the next one to guess (although at this point, I'm just going through the Dravidian languages in order of decreasing numbers of speakers.

Mrm Tat Kampunawkwan mrm tantukwan impananaŋpayɲcut antiɲanm, Malwampi antiɲanm tay mn yaŋkay tantawrawt anak Macnumun. Tay ikn mnta nantayɲakmpn mrm tumpntut imparpatmpicantawk tay mpa impayakalcantawk nampɨnamamaknkwalcampitayn namarawt mn anak mnayan. Mrm kwalcampi antiɲanm impawrampicantawk.

I can provide more text if it'll help, as well.

Based on the fact it has both ɲ and c, it looks like it has pretty much a full palatal serie although, besides approximants, it seems to only have nasals and plosives. The lack of fricatives seems very unusual indeed though.

[Lazar]

In that case I suppose Telugu is the next one to guess (although at this point, I'm just going through the Dravidian languages in order of decreasing numbers of speakers.

It's not Telugu. I'll also help you out and tell you that it's not Malayalam either.

The lack of fricatives seems very unusual indeed though.

That's a good point. Based on that, I'll guess that it's from Australia.

[Envelope Generator]

Repúnkun niśpa
kòtćaketá
kamuj otta
pirikano
itak an.
Kivá ne jakne
tan śompaj
eápkas akka.
Piráturu kotan
koápkas akka
epetćiu sakno
ápkaś jákne
a-koro kotan
aeśćilam kusu néna.

A Sami language?

[eSOANEM]

In that case I suppose Telugu is the next one to guess (although at this point, I'm just going through the Dravidian languages in order of decreasing numbers of speakers.

It's not Telugu. I'll also help you out and tell you that it's not Malayalam either.

Ok, I think I'm going to leave this one to other people who hopefully know a bit more about Dravidian languages than I do now.

Repúnkun niśpa
kòtćaketá
kamuj otta
pirikano
itak an.
Kivá ne jakne
tan śompaj
eápkas akka.
Piráturu kotan
koápkas akka
epetćiu sakno
ápkaś jákne
a-koro kotan
aeśćilam kusu néna.

A Sami language?

It's not Samic (or indeed from any Uralic language).

[monadic]

my small contribution to this thread

suradhira jayaning rat, lebur dening pangastuti

other version

sura sudhira jayanikang rat, syuh bhrasta tekaping ulah dharmastuti

kalanira ri nguni gumeseng ing alas iki kang mangaran Andakawana dadi luput kang singha Nilamoro mangkêki lungha ta yâmegil umungsi ikang alas lyan amanggih ta ya kidang Mrěgalohini ngaranya wisata têki ameng-ameng rikang alas.

katon dénikang singha diněmaknya luput kang kidang apan kapulět ing odod pwêkang singha mangkin masengit,

magělěng rikang alas něhěr inujaranya karěngě pwa ya déning alas mangkana mojar kang alas angling.

adama kang singha ri wěnangnya masabda iki asing manukanê citanya kadi pira saktinya yadin sadénya matinggal ika manglwanga pira iki mangké ri ananya masânamběha mangkana lingikang alas mojar lungha tang singha aměgil in těgal

[eSOANEM]

I'm not sure I can contribute much to those other than saying the first is giving me austronesian vibes.

I'm also posting a new extract at the request of a friend:

akisios arkatokok materekos to[-]o kot[-]atom teuo[-] atoś tonion eu

("[-]" marks unrecognisable/untranscribable characters)

[Lazar]

Is it an ancient IE language?

[eSOANEM]

Yes, it's from an old bilingual stone inscription between two IE languages of different branches.

Edit, I found somewhere which filled in the gaps of the other one's transcription:

akisios arkatokok materekos tośo kote atom teuox atoś tonion eu

Edit Editson: Also, why I'm at it, here're two inscriptions in a different ancient language.

fel thy bvr Licini Piso lybythem lisnim vylysthim vylySarvnv byn sanv LXXIIII felo

......

Thanvbda vbyne Nasif felv myns yɬth lyMasavchan byn Iylvl bydinario yl [stuff, assumed to be a price] fy lythychleth vybvny Annobal chylyv5v(?)bylndsiana chvlam

The texts are unrelated but belong to the same language, the only capital letters used are to mark proper nouns.

Edit III Editson Editson:

Ī kathātī ār ajgut manjar kī bācar "Īs jok ind'rim aḵẖdas." Ās gahi aiyā ra'anum bēlas gahi khara baggē chippā lōṭā sañjgī ḵẖalb kērā. Āũge bēlas dēoṛā̃ bhagtārin ēḍā taiyas taṅghai ālon beddāgē. Ā paccō bhakuas gahi bārenū ānyā "Eṅg jaundḵẖadis gā ennē ennen khōb aḵẖdas." Bēlas cā̃ḋe āsin ēḍ'ā taiyas; paikar barcar darā ānyar "gucā niṅgan bēlas ēḍālagdas."

I don't know cheat-y this is so it's under a spoiler.

Spoiler:

I had a look a the wikipedia map of Dravidian languages. Based on the guess I had earlier that it's from an area with a relatively large Muslim population, Malto (Paharia) looks like a plausible bet.

[Alexius]

Yes, it's from an old bilingual stone inscription between two IE languages of different branches.

Edit, I found somewhere which filled in the gaps of the other one's transcription:

akisios arkatokok materekos tośo kote atom teuox atoś tonion eu

Some of this looks like Greek, but other parts really don't. Pelasgian?

Edit Editson: Also, why I'm at it, here're two inscriptions in a different ancient language.

fel thy bvr Licini Piso lybythem lisnim vylysthim vylySarvnv byn sanv LXXIIII felo

......

Thanvbda vbyne Nasif felv myns yɬth lyMasavchan byn Iylvl bydinario yl [stuff, assumed to be a price] fy lythychleth vybvny Annobal chylyv5v(?)bylndsiana chvlam
[/quoteThe texts are unrelated but belong to the same language, the only capital letters used are to mark proper nouns.]

OK, it looks Celtic. Clearly people who are in contact with Romans judging by the Roman numerals and the reference to "Licini Piso". The reference to Hannibal as well makes me think some kind of Celtiberian?

[eSOANEM]

The first of those two excerpts is celtic; the other is not. Both are languages with significant contact with Latin.

[Alexius]

The first of those two excerpts is celtic; the other is not. Both are languages with significant contact with Latin.

So just to check, this:

akisios arkatokok materekos tośo kote atom teuox atoś tonion eu

is the Celtic one, and the two other phrases are in the same, non-Celtic, language?

[eSOANEM]

That is correct.

[Lazar]

Spoiler:

I had a look a the wikipedia map of Dravidian languages. Based on the guess I had earlier that it's from an area with a relatively large Muslim population, Malto (Paharia) looks like a plausible bet.

Sadly… no. You're very close, though.

[Alexius]

Yes, it's from an old bilingual stone inscription between two IE languages of different branches.

Edit, I found somewhere which filled in the gaps of the other one's transcription:

akisios arkatokok materekos tośo kote atom teuox atoś tonion eu

Is this Gaulish? Celtic, contact with Latin, and it looks like Eluveitie lyrics.

Edit Editson: Also, why I'm at it, here're two inscriptions in a different ancient language.

fel thy bvr Licini Piso lybythem lisnim vylysthim vylySarvnv byn sanv LXXIIII felo

......

Thanvbda vbyne Nasif felv myns yɬth lyMasavchan byn Iylvl bydinario yl [stuff, assumed to be a price] fy lythychleth vybvny Annobal chylyv5v(?)bylndsiana chvlam

So contact with Latin, not Celtic, and mentions 'Licini Piso' and 'Annobal'. It doesn't look Semitic enough to be Punic. Could it be some sort of early Berber language?

[eSOANEM]

You're going to need to be more specific on the first. I think I'll have to give you the last one though (even though you ruled it out); it was Punic but post-second-Punic-war. I'd been desperate to find a Punic sample for ages. I don't really know much about Semitic languages so can't really comment on why it might not look very Semitic but I'd guess it's a combination of the age of the sample and influence from Rome after the war.

[Lazar]

Since this thread has died down and eSOANEM came very close, I may as well reaveal that this –

Ī kathātī ār ajgut manjar kī bācar "Īs jok ind'rim aḵẖdas." Ās gahi aiyā ra'anum bēlas gahi khara baggē chippā lōṭā sañjgī ḵẖalb kērā. Āũge bēlas dēoṛā̃ bhagtārin ēḍā taiyas taṅghai ālon beddāgē. Ā paccō bhakuas gahi bārenū ānyā "Eṅg jaundḵẖadis gā ennē ennen khōb aḵẖdas." Bēlas cā̃ḋe āsin ēḍ'ā taiyas; paikar barcar darā ānyar "gucā niṅgan bēlas ēḍālagdas."

is Kurukh, a Dravidian language spoken mostly in Orissa. I'll add these, the second of which is transliterated:

Pilgu ni ka Naawuni ni booni so Yɛlgu la daa be, ka Yɛlgu maa daa be la Naawuni sani. Yɛlgu maa daa nyɛ la Naawuni. Yɛlgu maa daa pum be la Naawuni sani pilgu ni ha. Yɛlgu maa kɔbli ni ka Naawuni daa nam binshɛɣkam, ka binshɛli daa kani k’ o nam li ka Yɛlgu maa nuu ka di ni. Yɛlgu maa ni ka binshɛɣkam zaa nyɛvili daa yi na, ka nyɛvili maa daa nyɛ neesim ninsalnim' sani. Ka neesim maa kul neeri zibsim ni, ka zibsim maa bi tooi nyaŋ li.

Murgin el̦yl̦’atgyrgyn gètèjkyl̦in l̦ygitèl̦en”epkin grek”el̦ykèn kal̦ejpy. Ynk̦ènata ytl̦ën mačal̦van̦ val̦’yn tan̦gyevky val̦’èpy rusijil̦ykin el̦yl̦’attyrgèpy.

[eSOANEM]

I don't have much of an idea with the first one, but the second's use of <'> looks like hard signs to me (combined with the fact that the word rusijilykin looks like it could be related to russia) makes me think this language is usually written in cyrillic and is spoken primarily in russia or neighbouring countries,

The lack of any apparent long vowel marking makes me think it probably isn't one of the uralic languages in russia. I don't think it's slavic (other than the one -evky ending, none of the endings look very slavic to my eyes) and it seems to be missing some of the vowels I'd expect if it were turkic. I'm not sure what <è> represents and I think that'd be the main thing I'd need to work out to get further.

That said, reading a bit more deeply, it looks like some of the uralic languages in russia have lost contrastive vowel length so it could be one of them I guess. At the moment I think that'd be my best guess, but I don't think it's mordvinic (it doesn't look like moksha to me and erzya doesn't seem to have enough vowels).

[Lazar]

Hint: the first one is from Africa. You can tell from the use of <ɛ>, <ɔ> and <ɣ>, which come from the Africa Alphabet.

For the second one: you're right, it's from Russia, and it's not Slavic or Turkic. I used the scientific transliteration of Cyrillic, so <e> represents <е>, and <è> represents <э>. Also notable are all the instances of <ԓ> (<l̦>), which represents a lateral fricative. Simple <л> is only found in Russian loanwords in this language.

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

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

So, I forgot what this is, but if anyone's still interested, apparently it's Lycian.

[Lazar]

Yawn.

Pilgu ni ka Naawuni ni booni so Yɛlgu la daa be, ka Yɛlgu maa daa be la Naawuni sani. Yɛlgu maa daa nyɛ la Naawuni. Yɛlgu maa daa pum be la Naawuni sani pilgu ni ha. Yɛlgu maa kɔbli ni ka Naawuni daa nam binshɛɣkam, ka binshɛli daa kani k’ o nam li ka Yɛlgu maa nuu ka di ni. Yɛlgu maa ni ka binshɛɣkam zaa nyɛvili daa yi na, ka nyɛvili maa daa nyɛ neesim ninsalnim' sani. Ka neesim maa kul neeri zibsim ni, ka zibsim maa bi tooi nyaŋ li.

Murgin el̦yl̦’atgyrgyn gètèjkyl̦in l̦ygitèl̦en”epkin grek”el̦ykèn kal̦ejpy. Ynk̦ènata ytl̦ën mačal̦van̦ val̦’yn tan̦gyevky val̦’èpy rusijil̦ykin el̦yl̦’attyrgèpy.

These two were Dagbani and Chukchi.

[Opipik]

Sorry for necroing the thread, but three languages never got the correct answers. As I know the answers (and I didn't use Google) I thought I can answer them, so here they are:

Spoiler:

Repúnkun niśpa
kòtćaketá
kamuj otta
pirikano
itak an.
Kivá ne jakne
tan śompaj
eápkas akka.
Piráturu kotan
koápkas akka
epetćiu sakno
ápkaś jákne
a-koro kotan
aeśćilam kusu néna.

This one is Ainu, but in a strange orthography.

Spoiler:

Wadchaneh neane mooeskesuk: puttogweh agque wutonkouhtomut kenuppawhunash, Wutch matchetoout nag onkapunnasitcheg, wutch nishehteae nummatwomog, nag weenuhkiitcheg. Weyanehtunkqunneau aehenwonche oowesoo: nashpe wuttoonoo pittuanumweyeuog. Yeuyeu noowenuhkunkqunnonog ut nuttontanehtuonganunnonut : wuskesukoowoash wunnauwakompattaunnaopashen ohkeiyeu; Onatuh qunnonou kottuppooontog ne kodtohqunuk, kah onatuh wuskoshumwe qunnonou noh pattogque ayit assompamukquodtut.

Massachusetts.

Spoiler:

Mrm Tat Kampunawkwan mrm tantukwan impananaŋpayɲcut antiɲanm, Malwampi antiɲanm tay mn yaŋkay tantawrawt anak Macnumun. Tay ikn mnta nantayɲakmpn mrm tumpntut imparpatmpicantawk tay mpa impayakalcantawk nampɨnamamaknkwalcampitayn namarawt mn anak mnayan. Mrm kwalcampi antiɲanm impawrampicantawk.

Yimas. The lack of <s> and the vowelless words give it away.

----

EDIT: 2 new samples:

Ka mulapatu Godalu wangkanyangka, mantanguṟu pakaṉu ukiṟi puṉu kutjupa kutjupa tjuṯa. Uṉinypatjara, taṯutjara kutjupa kutjupa tjuṯa pakaṉu munu puṉu maitjara kutjupa kutjupa tjuṯa kuḻu pakaṉu, mai panya kalka winkitjara. Ka Godalu nyakula wiṟunmanu.

Djarraṯawunʼtja yukurra yurru dhärra garrwarnydja, märrmaʼ bathalanydja maṉḏanha, barrkuwatjthirri maṉḏa yurru yulŋunydja, ganaŋʼmarama yurru walupuynha munhakuŋurunydja. Dhiyaŋu djarraṯawunʼthunydja yurru ḻakarama yukurra wiripuŋuyamana, walunha ga dhuŋgarranha ga borummirriwuna walu," bitjarra ŋayi Gunhuʼ waŋananydja, bala yana yuwalkthi maḻŋʼthurrunanydja.

[Carlington]

Opipik, I'm super impressed. I can't be more specific but I think both of your submissions are Australian languages. If pressed, I might say the second is from the Western Desert family, but I'm not as sure about the first.

[Opipik]

If pressed, I might say the second is from the Western Desert family, but I'm not as sure about the first.

It's the other way around: the first is from the Western Desert family, but both are Australian Aboriginal languages (and both have more than 1 000 speakers).

[Lazar]

So… I'll guess that the first one is Pitjantjatjara, and the second one is Yolngu.

[Opipik]

So… I'll guess that the first one is Pitjantjatjara, and the second one is Yolngu.

Yes, the first one is indeed Pitjantjatjara and the second one is Yolngu. But which dialect of it?

[Opipik]

It seems like it's time to post some samples.

Tee pyala nayamo dokopa Pii doko katea-pyaa. Pii doko Gote-pipa awapa katea-pyaa. Pii doko baa Gote. Tee pyala nayamo dokopa Pii dokopa Gote-pipa katea-pyaa.

Ith ani hab ahg mani wa hab em-ahgith mat ab wabsh ni-oithk wo i wuhshani k wabshaba wehs ha ba'ich d i si ha'ichu no pi chum hekith an ha'ichug.