What language is this?

[Paul Hopper]

It wasn't a guess, Hartmut. Laz data appear in a problem in Emmon Bach's Introduction to Transformational Grammars, citing a UT thesis by Raplh Anderson. Given that Johanna's language is spoken in Turkey and that it has a noun plural suffix -epe, clearly cognate with Georgian -eb(e), the possibilities are limited.

Paul 


> john at research.haifa.ac.il wrote:
> 
>> I don't know what I'm talking about, but the elis and uris look like 
>> Georgian to me. John
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> Laz sounds like a good guess. Cf. 
> http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/caucasica/lazica/lazvok.htm. mskva 
> apparently means 'beautiful' in Laz. Since Laz is Kartvelian (very close 
> to, but not necessarily mutually intelligible with, Megrelian), Georgian 
> is a cognate, too. Hartmut
> 
>> Quoting Paul Hopper <hopper at cmu.edu>:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> Laz?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Does anyone recognize this language? I got this version of the
>>>> lyrics off the Internet. Supposedly, it's Turkish, but a local
>>>> Turkish speaker does not recognize ANY of the words.   The "v"
>>>> varies among a /w/, /v/, and voiced bilabial fricative. The"?§"
>>>> sounds like the voiceless alveopalatal affricate we spell "ch".  The
>>>> "x" is a voiceless velar fricative. Otherwise, the letters have
>>>> their IPA values. I have it on a collection of Turkish songs that
>>>> one dances Turkish dances to. You can sample the song on the
>>>> Internet, but I don't have the proper player software.
>>>> 
>>>> Help?
>>>> 
>>>> Ma bulur abu abu A mskva bozo memagu Memagusis Vixeli T ora
>>>> kogovaxeli
>>>> 
>>>> Emine api?§xuri Da?§xur ore da?§xuri Moxti ?§kim opute??a Var
>>>> gagnasen ?§a?§xuri
>>>> 
>>>> Emine 3ulu 3ulu Burgulepe ma3unu Emine skani-??eni Tolepe omam3unu
>>>> 
>>>> Anderina na??k'vare Axir oxoriskani Mot var gokomocaman Gululun
>>>> oraskani
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics Linguistics
>>>> Minor Advisor English Department California Polytechnic State
>>>> University, San Luis Obispo E-mail: jrubba at calpoly.edu Tel.:
>>>> 805.756.2184 Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596 Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
>>>> URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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