Name that language

By Simon

This week we have a quiz question from TJ. Can you identify this language and provide a translation?

Abán hav lan lahhamá d’sunqan yawman

Clues: this language acted as a lingua franca in a large region for about 1000 years, and is still spoken by a few small communities in that region. It was also the mother tongue of a famous carpenter. The above sentence refers to a type of food.

15 thoughts on “Name that language”

  3. I found that one of the words mean to do with water or a god. Can water count as a type of food???

  9. David – it isn’t a Romance language but it is spoken in parts of the Middle East.

    Somedude has got it – it is indeed Aramaic. Well done!

    It comes from the bible (Luke) and is part of a well-known prayer.

  10. I’m gonna take a wild guess here…the line wouldn’t be “Give us this day our daily bread,” would it?

    I don’t speak any languages in this family, but the “food” reference makes me suspect it.

  11. Minstrel – you’ve got it! Would you like to come up with a question for next week’s quiz? If so, please send it to me by email.

    Here’s what the sentence looks like in the Syriac/Aramaic alphabet:

    Give us this day our daily bread in Aramaic

    Source: http://www.peshitta.org

  12. There is a small mistake in the transcription. It should be:
    hav lan lahhma de-sunqanan kulyom.
    yawman is Arabic for today;
    kulyom is Syriac ‘every day’.

  13. I got here too late to guess before the answer was given, but I did think “Aramaic” before I scrolled down to see the comments! I must admit, however, I would’ve been stumped if it were not for the clues. A good one!

  14. Podolsky: actually the “-an” suffix is the same as “-na” suffix in arabic which refer to “us” or “ours”
    the word originally in aramaic is “yawm” or “yoom” (as in hebrew) and when you say “our day” it would be “yawmAN” or “yoomAn”

    in Arabic “our day” would be “yawmana” (not yoomana)
    and “yawman” in Arabic means “a day” (no definitive article)
    The “an” suffix comes in arabic for words that have no definitive article (of course not in all grammatical situations however) ! 🙂

    Minstrel: please tell me also the question and the answer ^+_+^ eh eh eh

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