Name That Language!

[Nortaneous]

Very obviously a language spoken in the southern part of Bougainville. Looks like Rotokas, but not quite. Konua?

yes

[bradrn]

Hopefully it’s alright if I post another challenge, since the last one has been guessed:

Nau kwasi qanitoqona quu boqo fanga naqi. Toqa neqe kera thaitoqomaku. Ni nau na kwai ngali qai mai. Dani qe qaru labataqi nau qasia naqa. Kere ade garo ngado. Nau ku biqi kasia bakuqa. Kera fula karangia maana kilu qeri. Nia qe tahngania sui naqa luma nia.

This one isn’t actually a sample text: it’s a collection of glossed sentences taken from an article on linguistics. But hopefully it shouldn’t matter for the purposes of this challenge.

[Karch]

To'abaita. (very clearly one of the Malaita languages - To'abaita is the only one that has both <th> and <q> /ʔ/)

[bradrn]

To'abaita. (very clearly one of the Malaita languages - To'abaita is the only one that has both <th> and <q> /ʔ/)

Very good! I must say, I’m really impressed at the amount of knowledge some people here have of obscure languages.

How about this one?

Mekek en eri. Misirna en ofa. Yua yuyun mes. Iosnok noga iofojok éra, erin marotot emedeses éra. Mem romreg ok efej. Mar nomi ah gug yergogaha.

(My ultimate goal here is to find something that you or Nortaneous don’t guess instantly, so I suppose I’ll just have to keep on submitting ever more obscure languages until I find something tricky enough…)

[Karch]

This one could be two languages, so I'll just guess randomly - Meyah?

[bradrn]

This one could be two languages, so I'll just guess randomly - Meyah?

No.

[Karch]

If it isn't Meyah, it's Moskona.

[bradrn]

If it isn't Meyah, it's Moskona.

You got it!

I have one more sample text left:

Nékɛ́ɛ́ɣɛ̀ wɔ̀lànì té dénì gà pélégì gíláwógìtì té vààgɔ̀ là. Té ɣɛ́ fólógì zù nṹgàytì kpẽ té légàà w̃ɛ̀ dɔ́wɔ́lɔ̀y zù gà té kpélèy lò ã̀dà. Nà tá bé kpélèy lò nà, má wátíy zù dápíváy lɔ̀ è ɣɛ̀nì gà. Té légàà ɣɛ̀ túw̃á táy sì yɔ́ɔ̀ sìmà lá yɔ̀ɔ̀ tátá w̃ɛ nà má lápíy ɣɛ́nì làànì. Wátíy nà té lììnì dápíwòmày è w̃ɛ́nì gà ŋázàytì té lììgɔ̀ jɛ́y zù.

It’s a nondescript language from a whole family of similar languages… if you (or Nortaneous) guess this as quickly as you’ve guessed all the other texts, I think I won’t submit any more texts, since I can’t find any texts trickier than this one.

(Oh, and if anyone else wants to have a try, please don’t Google this one — I tried it, and even searching for a couple of words gives the language easily!)

[Karch]

Mande?

[bradrn]

Mande?

Yes. But Mande is hardly a small family; can you figure out which Mande language it is?

[Karch]

I read about Zialo a while ago and it looked a bit like this text - is it Zialo?

[bradrn]

I read about Zialo a while ago and it looked a bit like this text - is it Zialo?

Yes! I suppose it was just my bad luck I happened to pick the one Mande language you read about recently.

Well, obviously I can’t find any texts which don’t get guessed minutes after I post them (at least that’s how I’m feeling right now), so I’ll stop here. Unless I find any languages which are even more obscure, that is…

[Karch]

Ŋa Mbwadum arumandama tɨk ŋgurkrunetana aŋgi. Mun sene rɨpɨm ŋgɨ woke Turuŋgwadre. Kanjaŋ num. Kandipana. Ŋgɨ okɨnana wokeya ŋgan nireŋgar kotarpekure: “Yu sapkike? Yim nda okɨtikenana kandipana Turuŋgwadre.” Ŋgu namtɨmbɨn, “Yum onkem. Ŋa tam ror wákare nɨm iru motɨkuokɨre wasowkɨ.” Ŋgɨ nam tarkwakɨ, woke.

This one is sadly easily searchable, but I trust you to not Google it and use your intuition instead.

[bradrn]

Ŋa Mbwadum arumandama tɨk ŋgurkrunetana aŋgi. Mun sene rɨpɨm ŋgɨ woke Turuŋgwadre. Kanjaŋ num. Kandipana. Ŋgɨ okɨnana wokeya ŋgan nireŋgar kotarpekure: “Yu sapkike? Yim nda okɨtikenana kandipana Turuŋgwadre.” Ŋgu namtɨmbɨn, “Yum onkem. Ŋa tam ror wákare nɨm iru motɨkuokɨre wasowkɨ.” Ŋgɨ nam tarkwakɨ, woke.

This one is sadly easily searchable, but I trust you to not Google it and use your intuition instead.

Well, I don’t know this one, but here’s what I intuitively start thinking:

• ⟨ŋ⟩ and ⟨ɨ⟩ are both fairly uncommon as letters, and both together is even rarer. To me, this suggests that this language is from either South America, Oceania (but not Australia or Polynesia) or Africa (but not Cameroon, since Cameroonean languages prefer ⟨ə⟩ to ⟨ɨ⟩.
• There appear to be prenasalised ⟨ŋg⟩, ⟨mbw⟩. The first is common, but to me the second one points to a language somewhere in Oceania — labialised bilabials are common there, and so are prenasalised consonants.

Is this on the right track so far?

EDIT: Another clue: ⟨b⟩ and ⟨g⟩ are always found prenasalised, while ⟨d⟩ is always either ⟨nd⟩ or ⟨dr⟩. Could this be a Fijian language in an unusual orthography?

[Kuchigakatai]

That definitely looks like non-Polynesian Oceanic. The only non-Polynesian Oceanic whose look I'm aware of and that I can name are Mwotlap and Yapese, but this doesn't look like either. I can't do more than that unless I start looking at published sample texts of languages.

[Karch]

It is technically spoken in Oceania, but it isn't Oceanic.

[Whimemsz]

I'm assuming it's a Papuan language but I don't know enough about Papuan languages to really narrow it down much. Maybe a Sepik or Lower Sepik-Ramu language? (going purely off the prenasalization and <ɨ>, though it would have to be one either without a vertical vowel system or where the allophones are spelled phonetically). Idk

[Karch]

It is indeed a Papuan language, but it isn't in the Sepik nor in the Lower Sepik-Ramu family.

though it would have to be one either without a vertical vowel system or where the allophones are spelled phonetically

The only Papuan language where the vowel system (which isn't vertical, then again no Ndu language seems to have a vertical system, there's always some vowels that don't fit) is spelled as if it was is Manambu.

[Nortaneous]

I would've guessed a Sepik language... TNG?

[Karch]

It isn't TNG either.