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Language Identification - Continued

From:Joseph Fatula <fatula3@...>
Date:Monday, November 17, 2003, 10:42
After some more conversations, I've accumulated quite a bit of data on this
mystery Slavic language.  Here are some phrases and words, using the
transcription as explained below.  Where words are different in this message
than the previous one, the newer ones are correct.  I've just gone through
and rechecked all the words collected so far.

a - [a]
e - [e]
i - [I] in closed syllables, [i] in open ones
o - [o]
u - [U]
ch - [tS]
j - [j]
sh - [S]
sj - [s\]
zh - [Z]
zj - [z\]

bjela - white
charna - black
chervenja - red

The 1st-sg ending for verbs is definitely -em/-am/-im:
ja chem - I want
ja idzem - I go
ja mam - I have
ja muzhem - I must
ja vidim - I see

cho - what
chom - why
do - who
dzje - where
jak - how
keljo - how much

dzwera - door
jazik - tongue
keksa - cake
krava - cow
kromin - chimney
mljeka - milk
njeba - heaven
poljuvka - soup
privnika - cellar
skopata - shovel
shwablik - match (for lighting a fire)
shwatka - candle
swol - salt
waitsa - egg
zajats - rabbit
zuba - tooth

And it turns out that:
padats - rain

Many of these sound like Russian words (assuming that I'm remembering them
correctly), such as
cho - shto
do - kto
dzje - gdje
jak - kak
krava - karova
swol - solj

Then again, Russian is the only Slavic language I have any experience with.
If I understand the general consensus so far, this is nearest to
Byelorussian or Polish?

Replies

Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...>
Phillip Driscoll <phild@...>
JS Bangs <jaspax@...>