Here’s a clue – it’s spoken in Europe, but isn’t Sami or a Romance language.
VoytecApril 13th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
It is a Slavic language, that’s for sure. The ‘da sme’, ‘vi ste’ bits would suggest it’s from the Balkans but I have no idea which language it is. I’ll bet for Bulgarian.
michaelApril 13th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Spoken in Europe, you say… Then my guess is Basque. That would explain the Spanish-like sounds + the dental affricate (ts).
But really, songs are awfully hard for language-guessing. Especially when the music is masking the singer’s voice.
Another clue: it’s a member of one of the smaller branches of the Indo-European language family.
xarxaApril 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
i put my final bet on albanian
VoytecApril 14th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I am quite surprised :) I will keep saying it sounds Slavic to me and therefore, it must to be very close related. There is only one language that could fit this profile and it’s Latvian.
Voytec is right – it is indeed Latvian, which is spoken mainly in Latvia. The song is called Cik savādi (How curious/peculiar) and the singer is A.Voitiskis, I think.
Don’t ask me why I guessed this language, but is it Samoan?
Nope, not Samoan, which is related to Hawaiian, a polynesian language with very rigidly-defined syllables…
My giess was either Sami of an eastern European language- Not sure.
d.m.f.
its got a romance flavour to it… couldnt place it, though
Here’s a clue – it’s spoken in Europe, but isn’t Sami or a Romance language.
It is a Slavic language, that’s for sure. The ‘da sme’, ‘vi ste’ bits would suggest it’s from the Balkans but I have no idea which language it is. I’ll bet for Bulgarian.
Spoken in Europe, you say… Then my guess is Basque. That would explain the Spanish-like sounds + the dental affricate (ts).
But really, songs are awfully hard for language-guessing. Especially when the music is masking the singer’s voice.
m.
I would say Basque. Although I don’t know any Basque, this song sounds like Txoria Txori, which is Basque.
It isn’t Basque or a Slavic language.
Another clue: it’s a member of one of the smaller branches of the Indo-European language family.
i put my final bet on albanian
I am quite surprised :) I will keep saying it sounds Slavic to me and therefore, it must to be very close related. There is only one language that could fit this profile and it’s Latvian.
I agree with Voytec.
Voytec is right – it is indeed Latvian, which is spoken mainly in Latvia. The song is called Cik savādi (How curious/peculiar) and the singer is A.Voitiskis, I think.
The recording comes from YouTube.
Oh, I actually recognized this one! (The language, that is, not the song.)
Well, my girlfriend is Latvian, although we speak mainly English and Russian – plus a bit of Welsh – at home.
It is indeed Latvian but the text is hard to understand even for me, a native. The lyrics can be found here: http://dziesmas.lv/index.asp?page=lyrics&ID=4378