Name That Language!

[Karch]

Dlay long Ta' Weta haaè kempöè te' Lung Lejie
Hewin mensah selah kempöè paèt na'an
Ebing blun neha
Kepit mléang dengéah
Lejie dya' las hanguy
ne' pin mtan leléang
Ngendo téang nöng wellun
Hi' haaè tewüp mehbéang
mlang nyen ka ngeduen
wekèah toh mèang bléang

Neither Papuan nor Skouic.

[Nortaneous]

Is it spoken in Malaysia?

[Karch]

Is it spoken in Malaysia?

No.

[bradrn]

Austroasiatic? If so, going by the consonant clusters I’d say it’s Aslian.

[Karch]

Austroasiatic? If so, going by the consonant clusters I’d say it’s Aslian.

It's neither of these.

[fusijui]

I think I might have the correct answer - it's neither Turkic nor IE, it's very obviously not Tungusic, it looks like Persian but it's "unlikely to be still spoken". Is it Moghol? (If it is, then it must be in a transcription I'm unfamiliar with.)

Ding-dang it, this thread (usually dead) moves SO FAST that on the rare rounds I could actually Name That Language, it's gone before I even see it!

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Dlay long Ta' Weta haaè kempöè te' Lung Lejie
Hewin mensah selah kempöè paèt na'an
Ebing blun neha
Kepit mléang dengéah
Lejie dya' las hanguy
ne' pin mtan leléang
Ngendo téang nöng wellun
Hi' haaè tewüp mehbéang
mlang nyen ka ngeduen
wekèah toh mèang bléang

Neither Papuan nor Skouic.

Is it SInitic; if not, does it contain Sinitic loanwords? (Lung Lejie looks like it's probably a Mandarin given name).

If it's Sinitic, is it some form of Hokkien?

[Karch]

It's not Sinitic neither does it contain Sinitic loanwords.

[bradrn]

OK… is this spoken in Eurasia at all? If not, is it Oto-Manguean?

Ding-dang it, this thread (usually dead) moves SO FAST that on the rare rounds I could actually Name That Language, it's gone before I even see it!

Quick, you still have a chance to name this one!

[Karch]

It's not Oto-Manguean, and it's spoken in the Old World (but not in Africa)

[bradrn]

Is it part of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Area? (Including Austronesian as a member of this category.)

[Karch]

Yeah, I think?

[bradrn]

Ooh, finally! So, it’s not Austroasiatic, it’s not Sinitic, it doesn’t look Kra-Dai or other Sino-Tibetan… is it Chamic?

[Karch]

It's not Chamic.

[Karch]

Yeah, I think?

Actually it turns out that it isn't a part of the SALA, since I somehow thought it encompassed all Austronesian languages west of Sulawesi, so no, the typically SALA characteristics were innovated independently.

[bradrn]

Is it at least Austronesian?

[Karch]

It is indeed Austronesian.

[bradrn]

Spoken in the Philippines?

[Raholeun]

Is it spoken on Borneo?

[dendana]

It is Modang, spoken in Borneo.

How did I get here? Well first off it kind of looked like it was from Borneo - some languages there have sesquisyllabic structure and large vowel/diphthong systems (iirc it's likely substratum influence from an extinct branch of Austroasiatic). Then I found this awesome dissertation about the languages of Borneo. Skimming through it, the word dlay caught my eye since that was one in the text and it's a noteworthy cluster - it is listed for the Kelai (aka Selai) language. Looking at the Modang-Selai languages on Glottolog, I saw the source A note on 'spirit helpers' in the Lung Lejie epic of the Wehèa Modang (East Kalimantan) and knew it had to be from here, since we saw that name in the source text. Sure enough, the text is from pages 101-102 in that PDF.

Next:

hauiɲenaa ke ere-naa

lejhiĩ katɕa=te miiŋka ke katɕa-ʉrʉ kuti-hjaĩ amia-rate, ʉtene-kʉrʉ-a=ne kujɲa kuriae sauki ora-ĩ amʉ-naanaha ne-ĩ enanihja kʉane
nii kahe-te tʉrʉ-a ʉ-e sonajɲa ɲãe hauini-a raj kakʉnʉ=ne hana
nii hãʉ=te kujɲadera-ĩ ari-tɕate
nii hãʉ=te ari-ĩ mʉkʉ-ʉre suru hana
mʉkʉ-ʉrʉ-a=ne hana=te kuhjuri
nii hana=te mʉkʉ-ĩ ra-e raj neba
raj ɲaka-netonaj=te ajɲa mʉkʉ-e
aladino na-a raj ɲaka kʉraa
marga na-a nii hauiɲenaa kʉraa
ɲãe sa-a