help with identifying a language/dialect

[Zrinka Jelaska]

Dear Katya!

Here are some possible problems and hints:

1. The husband does not have to be quite accurate in transcribing , which
is typicall when someone  does not know the language (listen to  Ken Lee,
Valentina Hasan, Bulgarian singer, singing her  first
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI and improved hit version of 
song by Mariah Carey  ( Can't live).

2. The wife could have trouble with pronunciation or child-like
pronunciation (e.g. palatalized fricatives, vowels, sound substitutions..)

3. Hence, the idiom could be some dialect, some child language, both, or
mixture. A few words and phrases are definitely Slavic, other are either
not or mispronounced or not accurately transcribed

4.For example:
aiyaki dobra (very good) could be jaki dobra or jako dobra or something
similar  Slavic (with breath taking): Polish jako dobry Ukrainian tak
dobre Czech / Croatian jako dobro

Dimmi Bu Jou = Give me a kiss could be:  dejmi pusu / pu'su, similar to
Cz. Dej mi pusu Slovak/Croatian daj mi pusu Pol. Daj mi buziaka,

Dobra Nitz = Good Morning  Ukrainian dobra nic (good night)

I do not know how it would be in Ruthenian, Ruthene or Rusyn, or other
dialects.  Zureba = may be a name of the first family dog, loan word...




> On 25.03.2014 12:01, Katya Burvikova wrote:
>>
>> Dear Seelangers,
>>
>> Need some help with an undefined dialect. There is a woman with
>> Alzheimer who started to speak her home language. Her husband took
>> notes of what he hears and he'd like to know what language is it:
>> Aiyaki= Very   'labai'
>> Aiyaki Dobra = Very Good 'labai gera'
>> Zureba = Dog   'shuo, shun-'
>> Geniru = Thank you  'achu'
>> Dimmi Bu Jou = Give me a kiss 'pabuchinuok mane'
>> Dobra Nitz = Good Morning  (more likely good night) 'labas rytas'
>> Yatkim = Hello 'alio'
>>
>> What language/dialect can it be?
>>
>> thanks a lot,
>> Katya Burvikova
>
> I just read Elena Gapova's guess.  There is nothing Lithuanian in these
> examples--as you can see from the Lithuanian I've added above [spelled
> more or less with English spelling].
> What is the basis for the locale Wilnagebiet?  Where does the woman
> live?  If in the US, doesn't the husband know anything about where she
> came from?    If she's still alive, it means she came here when
> immigration records were well preserved.  That should be researched to
> establish where she actually came from.  If the nexus is actually in the
> Baltic area, I can think of some other languages that could be in play,
> such as the Turkic language of the Lithuanian Karaites, Yiddish, Hebrew,
> German, Latvian, and the two Finnic languages still surviving in the
> area--Estonian and the minority in Latvia whose name now escapes me.
>
> Jules Levin
> Los Angeles
>
>
>
>
>
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Prof. dr. sc. Zrinka Jelaska
Odsjek za kroatistiku
Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
e-pošta: zjelaska at ffzg.hr
tel. +385 1 6120 074, tajnica 6120 067

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