Name That Language!

[Darren]

Aha! That's what I wanted you to think. But nay, it ain't.

Good to rule it out. Cèmuhî?

you sonnofabitch

[Nortaneous]

Cekti tunglen lya. Hã cekti tunglen, ber'a baji gaden na 7ida. Hã ningjya t'an lenju xyaxi jen tak t'andu deeni. Ning tak t'andu xyungxyen. 7idu su, nyung kirdangju, kisangju lenju, hã ning rdoxyen tar'xyen. Kalju!

[Darren]

tibeto burman? surely?

[Nortaneous]

tibeto burman? surely?

Yes.

[Darren]

Bodic? If so Tibetic itself?

[Karch]

This looks familiar. Darma?

[Nortaneous]

This looks familiar. Darma?

Yes.

[Karch]

Muriw, mia Busuma endo, a̰na eri isi ḭdw oanga-zere mia a̰ma isi tu endo tuengw. Vo rubo horafa modovo, vo tu tiqa zere teo isita. A̰na musona endo, zo fizute dare zo rou dare teo ḭa enengw, “Demi be o ia isita nae be a̰zo ba zungie vea. Zavo, ie nae be a̰zo ba zungie vengw. Be ba afi be rofune vea. Zo tove zo ba nangw tuevezo. Nae zo rou dare ba iati zo fizu dare rofune vea.”

[Darren]

My first thought was African but I think I'm gonna revise that to Papuan? If so is it spoken on the PNG mainland?

[Nortaneous]

Creaky voice limited to V-initial syllables, (C)V if <w> is a vowel. Touo?

[Karch]

Creaky voice limited to V-initial syllables, (C)V if <w> is a vowel. Touo?

Yeah. I've considered respelling it in the actual orthography (which is mostly identical except for one thing) but wasn't sure if <yV> was creaky voice or absence of creaky voice, and apparently neither was the author of the thesis I took my example from. The minimal pairs given in the two papers however indicate that <yV> is creaky voice ("tenseness"), which was apparently called "breathy voice" by all previous researchers. As a curiosity (and to show that it could always be worse), here's the snippet in John Kari's orthography:

Muriyor', miya Butsuma endo, yana eri itsi yidor' oyaṉa-zere miya yama itsi tu endo tuyeṉor'. Vo rubo horafa modovo, vo tu tiqa zere teyo itsita. Yana mutsona endo, zo fizute dare zo royu dare teyo yia eneṉor', "Demi be o iya itsita naye ba yazo ba zungiye veya. Zavo, iye naye be yazo ba zuṉiye vengor'. Be ba afi be rofune veya. Zo tove zo ba naṉor' tuyevezo. Naye zo royu dare ba iyati zo fizu dare rofune veya."

[Nortaneous]

Kangkoi paing to tix hu chawk, "Kawn kax kawn kax, yuh pa tix pex loe tix lih piang rawm ngaix?" Kawn kax ah nin, "Sang lhiex praix phao, daux rawm aoh eed ngie, yix keem loe tix haok piang rawm loh bhawm tix. Kangkoi paing niad maix ing ka nyiex, lauh lhiex maix kie."

Kangkoi paing giang khrawng rib niad to ing plak nyiex. Nawh yaox phung meeik praok krax, krai phung meeik mhong ka sang lhiex praix, meeik ting mu ah nin, "Rong mawh sang lhiex praix heue, yix keem niad gaih tix haok dee lhaong."

Kangkoi paing niad tix to phai ing plak nyiex mai yo tix miex tix, "Miex ---, miex ---, sang lhiex praix phao."

Tuih saih sinum praix tix vut, pra, pra, pra, lhiex ting lih tete heue.

1. Lox chawk:

(1) Jao pa tix sivaig tiam po?
(2) Jao pa tix kawn kax leue haok piang rawm?
(3) Meeik tawng tix gaih nyiex tix jao pa tix?
(4) Kangkoi paing giang pa tix ing ka nyiex liex?
(5) Khaix hoit tuih saih sinum praix, lih tix mawh pa tix?

[Karch]

Wa.

[Nortaneous]

Wa.

Yes.

[Darren]

I look away for one second and not only has the current round finished, but a subsequent round has had its turn as well.

[Karch]

Molopai tok pàk, “Yanùntàk kon uchi molopai matàik uta'lettàn yepulu piyak,” teppù ya. Tok uya yalàppù ipyak. Molopai tuna iwemyakanmasak lùppù wain pe yonpappù ya. I'nailàpai là iwessepoloppù ittuppù ya pen, tuna yanùnnài nan nùssan neken apyoto yamùk uya ittu tùse màlàpàk tùwemali'masen umoine kà'mappù ya. Molopai ipàk, “Tamù'nawolon kon mùkyamlo wapiya wakù wain ne'nài nan, molopai nen uchi ikà'masak kon uya yeuno'makasak yau àkàmlàk lùppù àli lùiwa wain nepù tok uya, tùse wakù mainanpappù auya man sàlà tepose,” teppù ya.

[Darren]

Is it central American Ingarikó?

[Karch]

Is it central American Ingarikó?

Dammit. Yes, Patamuna to be more specific. How did you find out?

[Darren]

Is it central American Ingarikó?

Dammit. Yes, Patamuna to be more specific. How did you find out?

I had at first thought it was central American but, fueled as I was by a powerful desire to beat Nort for once, consulted Saphon just in case. I found some fairly promising matches – Ingarikó, Pemon and Macushi (and some others like Mapoyo which ended up being way off anyway), basically just by looking for languages without voiced stops and with seven-vowel systems. These seemed quite often to be Pemong languages, so I looked through wikipedia and found that Macushi had geminates, which this text did too (even though it had voiced stops too, I thought maybe geminates occurred in other languages of the family without being analysed as separate phonemes) and then another debuccalised /k/ before sonorants, which even promisinger.

To cut a long story short, I was pretty sure it was a Pemong language, but I couldn't find any that orthographised /ɨ ə/ as <ù à> (which I assume is what's going on here), so I kinda hedged my bets with Ingarikó which the closest.


Next: (Nort if you get this within two guesses I will cut off and eat one of my legs)

Bom wota nalan. Dhndhg mga bim dzagn. Gl thämä gaytha btrpnmndeo spelénggäwä. Ngiä gta plomä ybänyin.

[Karch]

Yam. Narrowing it is however harder because these languages all look the same.