Omniglot - the blog

Name the language

Simon on 29 Sep 2007

Language and Quiz questions | Comments (22)

22 Responses to “Name the language”

1. Halabund on 29 Sep 2007 at 4:25 pm #

   This is just a wild guess: Malay or something related.

2. Aeetlrcreejl on 29 Sep 2007 at 7:01 pm #

   Another wild guess: Hebrew or Arabic.

3. Tolkien_Freak on 29 Sep 2007 at 7:11 pm #

   Same guess as Aeetlrcreejl - Hebrew or Arabic.

4. Podolsky on 29 Sep 2007 at 7:34 pm #

   By no means Hebrew. Literary Arabic.

5. Daydreamer on 29 Sep 2007 at 11:09 pm #

   Arabic would be too easy, wouldn’t it? And it’s definitely not
   Malay.
   I’d favor one of the Caucasian languages - such as Lesgi or Lak.

6. Yitzhakofeir on 30 Sep 2007 at 12:51 am #

   It’s definitely not Hebrew… And it doesn’t sound like any variety of Arabic I know.
   *shrugs*

7. d.m.falk on 30 Sep 2007 at 4:37 am #

   Certainly sounds Semitic, but as said, it’s definitely not Hebrew or Arabic…. Somali, then?

   d.m.f.

8. TJ on 30 Sep 2007 at 6:20 am #

   it is nice to see a variety of opinions ! :)

9. Rmss on 30 Sep 2007 at 7:47 am #

   Can you give us a hint? It is a natlang, right?

10. iwsfutcmd on 30 Sep 2007 at 9:25 am #

    I’ll say Classical Arabic just for the -un endings of some of the words. But honestly, I don’t recognize any other aspects.

11. Simon on 30 Sep 2007 at 10:29 am #

    TJ - would you like to give a clue or two?

12. TJ on 30 Sep 2007 at 11:10 am #

    well let’s see if this hint helps …. although I would say it helps “a lot” :)

    it is a mix of Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic! :)

13. Daydreamer on 30 Sep 2007 at 11:42 am #

    Second attempt:
    Is it the (unnamed) language of the population of the village of Ma’lula in Syria?
    If not, what about Aisor?

14. TJ on 30 Sep 2007 at 11:50 am #

    Daydreamer: in fact the language of Ma’lula is not unnamed. Their language is Syriac (a branch of Aramaic) which Jesus spoke as well. I think it went under some modifications for living among romans and other civilizations but the essence is still the same I believe! :)

15. TJ on 30 Sep 2007 at 11:50 am #

    oh and it is not Aisor as well :)

16. Daydreamer on 30 Sep 2007 at 1:15 pm #

    If it’s not Tûrôyo, I’m at the end of my wits.

17. AR on 30 Sep 2007 at 3:36 pm #

    Ayvarith? TJ’s constructed language?

18. Simon on 30 Sep 2007 at 4:09 pm #

    AR is right - it is Ayvarith, TJ’s constructed language.

    The sentence is an Irish proverb that means “Men are like bagpipes: no sound comes from them till they’re full”

19. TJ on 30 Sep 2007 at 4:33 pm #

    Voila!

    name your prize! :)

20. Rmss on 30 Sep 2007 at 8:19 pm #

    Hehe, I was actually thinking the same, even before anyone replied. But as I already know some of the language it wouldn’t be fair to answer.

21. Ronald Kyrmse on 05 Oct 2007 at 8:07 pm #

    Do conlangs count for these “Name the Language” puzzles? Only more or less established ones, perhaps? How about those from Ill Bethisad?
    [ Simon, I bet you know what I may be thinkng… ] ;-)

22. Simon on 06 Oct 2007 at 10:14 am #

    Ronald - conlangs can be used for language puzzles. Instead of asking people to name the language, I could see if they can work out which language(s) the conlang is based on.