Re: OT: What language is this?

It is most definitely not Sanskrit, and as far as I can tell Tibetan. The
phonology sounds about right, and the context provides the most significant
clues.
I wouldn't say syllabification of an unknown language was difficult. In
fact, the syllables are rather distinct in the song. The subtitles are
thoroughly inaccurate as they reflect Tibetan as it is pronounced in Chinese
(i.e. codas are missing etc.) and Romanised (i.e. tones are missing, certain
distinctions are not represented).

Eugene

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 8:52 PM, Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 21:41, Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...>
> wrote:
> > Hallo!
> >
> > Does anyone know which language this song:
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BLBkepCL4c
> >
> > is in? The title says it was Sanskrit, but I am pretty sure
> > it isn't. After all, Sanskrit has predominantly polysyllabic
> > words and is recognizably similar to Greek and Latin.
>
> Segmenting an unknown spoken language into words is notoriously
> difficult, so number of syllables is hard to determine.
>
> Judging by the info at the right, the subtitles, and what I heard in
> the first half, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Sanskrit rendered in
> Chinese phonology and then sung by a Chinese speaker who had no idea
> what real Sanskrit sounds like.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
>

Reply