Language quizzes

[Qwynegold]

Yiddish:

יעדער איז באַרעכטיקט אױף די אַלע רעכט און פֿרײַהײטן װאָס שטײען געשריבן אין אָט דער דעקלאַראַציע, ניט געקוקט אױף װאָסער־ניט־איז אונטערשײד, זאָל זײַן פֿאָלק, הױטפֿאַרב, לשון, רעליגיע, פּאָליטישע אָדער אַנדערע געדאַנקען, נאַציאָנאַליטעט, קולטור, פֿאַרמאָג, געבורט, אָדער װאָסער־ניט־איז אַנדערן סטאַטוס.

Source: https://unicode.org/udhr/d/udhr_ydd.html.

Thanks! I'll use this in an upcoming quiz.

Well, I don’t speak Yiddish, but I can read Hebrew (though I don’t understand it), so here’s my attempt at a transcription:

Yeder iz barekhtikt oyf di ale rekht un frayheytn vos shteyen geshribn in ot der deklaratsye, nit gekukt oyf voser-nit-iz untersheyd, zol zayn folk, hoytfarb, lshun, religye, politishe oder andere gedanken, natsyonalitet, kultur, farmog, geburt, oder voser-nit-iz andern status.

This is otherwise identical to what I can see in the video except for the following words:
oyf > aoyf (two instances)
un > aun
untersheyd > auntersheyd

But thanks anyway!

[Richard W]

You have to choose from the images available at either Wikimedia Commons or Pixabay. And I would require both the foreign text and a romanization of it to be present on the same image. So this is not feasible.

How abusable is Pixabay? In principle, you can generate images by taking screenshots of browser renderings of all the questions.

[bradrn]

Yiddish:

יעדער איז באַרעכטיקט אױף די אַלע רעכט און פֿרײַהײטן װאָס שטײען געשריבן אין אָט דער דעקלאַראַציע, ניט געקוקט אױף װאָסער־ניט־איז אונטערשײד, זאָל זײַן פֿאָלק, הױטפֿאַרב, לשון, רעליגיע, פּאָליטישע אָדער אַנדערע געדאַנקען, נאַציאָנאַליטעט, קולטור, פֿאַרמאָג, געבורט, אָדער װאָסער־ניט־איז אַנדערן סטאַטוס.

Source: https://unicode.org/udhr/d/udhr_ydd.html.

Thanks! I'll use this in an upcoming quiz.

Oops, I didn’t even realise that you didn’t post that! (That’s why I provided a transcription — I thought you had asked for one.)

Well, I don’t speak Yiddish, but I can read Hebrew (though I don’t understand it), so here’s my attempt at a transcription:

Yeder iz barekhtikt oyf di ale rekht un frayheytn vos shteyen geshribn in ot der deklaratsye, nit gekukt oyf voser-nit-iz untersheyd, zol zayn folk, hoytfarb, lshun, religye, politishe oder andere gedanken, natsyonalitet, kultur, farmog, geburt, oder voser-nit-iz andern status.

This is otherwise identical to what I can see in the video except for the following words:
oyf > aoyf (two instances)
un > aun
untersheyd > auntersheyd

But thanks anyway!

Ah, they must have used Google Translate (which I also used to cross-check my transcription). It’s fine for the most part, except for the error you’ve spotted here: the letter Aleph ⟨א⟩ is silent, but Google Translate seems to transcribe it as ⟨a⟩.

[Qwynegold]

Newest quizzes:
Guess the Language #6
Guess the Language #7

You have to choose from the images available at either Wikimedia Commons or Pixabay. And I would require both the foreign text and a romanization of it to be present on the same image. So this is not feasible.

How abusable is Pixabay? In principle, you can generate images by taking screenshots of browser renderings of all the questions.

Hmm, I guess I could do that. It's a little annoying though that everything would need to be images, when most of the questions are just regular text.

[Qwynegold]

Oops, I didn’t even realise that you didn’t post that! (That’s why I provided a transcription — I thought you had asked for one.)

Ah no, there are transcriptions for everything. However, if someone spots a mistake somewhere, or can offer a better transcription than what's provided in these videos (i.e. for Arabic or Hindi), then please contact me.

This is otherwise identical to what I can see in the video except for the following words:
oyf > aoyf (two instances)
un > aun
untersheyd > auntersheyd

Ah, they must have used Google Translate (which I also used to cross-check my transcription). It’s fine for the most part, except for the error you’ve spotted here: the letter Aleph ⟨א⟩ is silent, but Google Translate seems to transcribe it as ⟨a⟩.

Oh, I see. I'll have to make corrections then. All right, thanks!

[Qwynegold]

I've been thinking about if I should upload a lot of pictures to Pixabay after all. But if I make a picture quiz, then I'd like to include several languages with funky scripts in it. I was thinking of maybe using Omniglot as a source, but it seems like that site doesn't really have any text samples with transliterations for ancient languages.

Right now I was looking at what they had about Sumerian. There were no transliterated samples, except that they had a link to that one YouTube video that I already know of. I took a look at the Sumerian Unicode block on Wikipedia, to see if I can copy-paste single characters from there. But me being unfamiliar with cuneiform I can't locate the right characters.

So, does anyone know of any site that has a big collection of text samples from different languages, that are copy-pasteable?

[bradrn]

I've been thinking about if I should upload a lot of pictures to Pixabay after all. But if I make a picture quiz, then I'd like to include several languages with funky scripts in it. I was thinking of maybe using Omniglot as a source, but it seems like that site doesn't really have any text samples with transliterations for ancient languages.

You can find a few ancient scripts with transcriptions if you look carefully:

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/southarabian.htm (video has a transcription)
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/avestan.htm
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/sogdian.htm

Also a couple other ‘funky’ scripts you might want to use:

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/lampung.htm
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/vai.htm
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/zhuang.htm
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/pahawhhmong.htm
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/manipuri.htm

[Richard W]

Right now I was looking at what they had about Sumerian. There were no transliterated samples, except that they had a link to that one YouTube video that I already know of. I took a look at the Sumerian Unicode block on Wikipedia, to see if I can copy-paste single characters from there. But me being unfamiliar with cuneiform I can't locate the right characters.

Mesopotamian cuneiform has changed a lot over the years. The Unicode table is totally unusable for neo-Assyrian, which is the usual form one encounters. Would some Hittite do you?:

𒀀𒁍𒄿𒀀𒈠𒃷 𒄿𒈾 𒆳 𒌷𒈪𒀉𒋫𒀭𒉌 𒆪𒀉 𒀭𒁕 𒀀𒊭𒀭𒁺𒇷𒌍𒆠𒀉
𒈾𒀸𒃷 𒀀𒊭𒀭𒁺𒇷 𒀭𒁕 𒅖𒋫𒀭𒁕𒀀𒀉 𒊭 𒀭𒌓 𒌷𒀀𒊑𒅔𒈾𒈠𒃷𒃽𒄿𒀀
𒂡𒄭𒀀 𒊭𒆪𒉿𒀭𒁕𒊑𒌍𒆠 𒅕

I can supply transliteration and translation of this 17-word text if you want them. It comes from pp69-70 of the World's Writing Systems. I knocked it up 12 years ago to exercise a SCSU implementation. (One BOM, 68 Cuneiform characters and 17 ASCII took 292 bytes uncompressed and 151 bytes compressed - 1.92 bytes compressed per character, which feels good for the SMP, but is about par for medium-sized scripts.)

[Raphael]

What about Babylonic cuneiform? Does the Unicode table enable writing washing bills in it?

[Richard W]

What about Babylonic cuneiform? Does the Unicode table enable writing washing bills in it?

In the style of what date? There's a good chance that http://www.sumerisches-glossar.de/downl ... syrian.pdf will give you the answers you need. This of course assumes that one could write the list in clay given a stick and a penknife (to make ones own stylus).

[Qwynegold]

Right now I was looking at what they had about Sumerian. There were no transliterated samples, except that they had a link to that one YouTube video that I already know of. I took a look at the Sumerian Unicode block on Wikipedia, to see if I can copy-paste single characters from there. But me being unfamiliar with cuneiform I can't locate the right characters.

Mesopotamian cuneiform has changed a lot over the years. The Unicode table is totally unusable for neo-Assyrian, which is the usual form one encounters.

I was actually looking at the Sumerian language itself:

Sumerian
https://youtu.be/igLEwLkU1HY?t=29
0:29-0:46
"Enlil, king of all the lands [...] set up a stele there."

Would some Hittite do you?:

𒀀𒁍𒄿𒀀𒈠𒃷 𒄿𒈾 𒆳 𒌷𒈪𒀉𒋫𒀭𒉌 𒆪𒀉 𒀭𒁕 𒀀𒊭𒀭𒁺𒇷𒌍𒆠𒀉
𒈾𒀸𒃷 𒀀𒊭𒀭𒁺𒇷 𒀭𒁕 𒅖𒋫𒀭𒁕𒀀𒀉 𒊭 𒀭𒌓 𒌷𒀀𒊑𒅔𒈾𒈠𒃷𒃽𒄿𒀀
𒂡𒄭𒀀 𒊭𒆪𒉿𒀭𒁕𒊑𒌍𒆠 𒅕

I can supply transliteration and translation of this 17-word text if you want them. It comes from pp69-70 of the World's Writing Systems. I knocked it up 12 years ago to exercise a SCSU implementation. (One BOM, 68 Cuneiform characters and 17 ASCII took 292 bytes uncompressed and 151 bytes compressed - 1.92 bytes compressed per character, which feels good for the SMP, but is about par for medium-sized scripts.)

Yes, Hittite would be welcome too. Can you provide the transcription please? And what's the author's name? I'm thinking I'll just give the reference as "The World's Writing Systems, Author".

[Raphael]

What about Babylonic cuneiform? Does the Unicode table enable writing washing bills in it?

In the style of what date? There's a good chance that http://www.sumerisches-glossar.de/downl ... syrian.pdf will give you the answers you need. This of course assumes that one could write the list in clay given a stick and a penknife (to make ones own stylus).

Thank you!

[Richard W]

𒀀𒁍𒄿𒀀𒈠𒃷 𒄿𒈾 𒆳 𒌷𒈪𒀉𒋫𒀭𒉌 𒆪𒀉 𒀭𒁕 𒀀𒊭𒀭𒁺𒇷𒌍𒆠𒀉
𒈾𒀸𒃷 𒀀𒊭𒀭𒁺𒇷 𒀭𒁕 𒅖𒋫𒀭𒁕𒀀𒀉 𒊭 𒀭𒌓 𒌷𒀀𒊑𒅔𒈾𒈠𒃷𒃽𒄿𒀀
𒂡𒄭𒀀 𒊭𒆪𒉿𒀭𒁕𒊑𒌍𒆠 𒅕

Transliterationː
A-BU-YA-ma-kan I-NA KUR ^URUmi-it-ta-an-ni ku-it an-da a-ša-an-du-le-eš-ki-it
na-aš-kán a-ša-an-du-li an-da iš-ta-an-da-a-it SA ^dUTU ^URUa-ri-in-na-ma-kán GAŠAN-YA
EZEN^ḪI.A ša-ku-wa-an-da-re-eš-ki-ir

Transcription (spoilt by Sumeroɡrams and Akkadoɡrams)ː
abu_Akk-ya_Akk-makan ina_Akk kur_Sum ^cityMittanni kuit anda ašandulešket
nuaškan ašanduli anda ištantāit ša_Akk ^godutu_Sum ^cityArinnamakan gašan_Sumya_Akk
ezen^plural_Sum šakuwandareškir

abu_Akk = 'father'
ya_Akk = 'my'
ina_Akk = 'in'
kur_Sum = 'land'
ša_Akk = of
utu_Sum = sun god
gašan_Sum = lady
ezen^plural_Sum = festivals

Translation:
But because my father remained camped in the land of Mitanni, and delayed in the camp, the festivals of my Lady the sun goddess of Arinna went unobserved.

Notional author: Mursili II
(Republished by Figulla and Weber, 1919, no. 4 lines 16-18)

The chapter I've copied it from is by Piotr Michalowski; the book is edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright.

[Qwynegold]

Thank you!

[Qwynegold]

I uploaded some pictures to Pixabay a week ago, just to test how that site works. It turns out they have to be approved before they become available. It still says "unprocessed" on all of my pictures.

[Qwynegold]

Another update: Now it doesn't say "unprocessed" on my pictures anymore, but I can't determine if they've been approved or rejected. They don't show up when I search for them though. And it seems like Pixabay is only intended for photos, so I think I will have to abandon this idea. I'll have to do funky texts as SVG images...

[Qwynegold]

Now, finally: Guess the Language #8