Re: Language Identification - Continued

I'm not a Slavicist either, but I speak two Slavic languages (Russian - my L1,
and Ukrainian), and I got acquainted with most of the others. The material you
give resembles a bit corrupted or a dialectal Slovakian. I guess so because of
peculiar diphthongs and -m in 1.sn for verbs.
-- Yitzik

----- Original Message -----
From: Joseph Fatula
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 12:59 PM
Subject: Language Identification - Continued


> 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?
>