Re: Language Identification - Continued

--- Joseph Fatula skrzypszy:

> 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.
Quite an interesting phenomenon, this language!
Well, for all I can say as an amateur semi-pseudo-quasi-Slavicist is that
this is definitely nót Polish, nor is it any of the other "standard"
languages. So what we are dealing here must be a dialect of some sort.

My knowledge about Polish dialects is far from extensive, but I can tell
for sure that this is not a Polish dialect either. Nor do I believe that
this is Belarussian, Russian, or Ukrainian, not even a remote dialect.
Others who suggested a form Slovak or Croatian are IMO closer to the truth.

The examples you give show elements from both West, East, and South Slavic,
which makes one suspect that we must be dealing with some kind of
transitional or border dialect.

My guess would be Rusyn (aka Ruthenian, Rusnak, Carpatho-Ukrainian, etc.),
in particular one of its more Southern dialects. Rusyn is commonly known as
the fourth East-Slavic language, but in fact it is mostly a rest group of
several (five, IIRC) dialects with vast differences between each other,
thoroughly influenced by the language(s) that surround(s) them. Some
consider them conversative, peripherical dialects of Ukrainian, others
think of them as one or more separate languages.

Well, I can tell for sure that this is not the Lemko dialect. However, some
googling showed me that there are great similarities with the variant that
is spoken in the Vojvodina (I must admit, I didn't even know that there
were Rusyns in that region): the infinitive on -ts <-c>, the world _keljo_,
etc.

For example, have a look here:
<http://rusnak.netfirms.com/keljo_nas_jest.htm>

Alternatively, but less likely, Hutsul could be a possibility (but merely
because I have no data on it).

If I may ask, where did you or your friend get these fragments? Does he
know more about the language, and if not, can the fragments be corrupted by
his ignorance of it?

Jan