Guess the Language, anyone?

[Vijay]

Yay! Finally got something right!

Is it Austronesian?

[Nortaneous]

motion to ban PNG

[Frislander]

Motion seconded.

[Vijay]

As a guess, or as a country to post samples in languages from?

[opipik]

Yay! Finally got something right!

Is it Austronesian?

Nope.

[jmcd]

As a guess, or as a country to post samples in languages from?

I hope it's not the second because it blocks like 1/9 of all languages or something like that.

[Nortaneous]

yes, and they all look exactly the same and have to be brute-forced

[kuroda]

yes, and they all look exactly the same and have to be brute-forced

I haven't been counting, but I've had the feeling that for a long time (or maybe more accurately: increasingly often) most rounds of this game are solved by brute-forcing. Regardless of whether they're spoken in NG, are Papuan or Austronesian, or are something totally different.

Again, I haven't done the math, but ISTM that any bot with access to Ethnologue could and would 'win' a round in a dozen or so guesses, just mechanically. That's not very entertaining or interesting (speaking for myself only), but I don't know of a way to change the game.

[Cedh]

What about allowing only one series of asking for regional hints (e.g. once the current quizmaster admits that a language is spoken in the Americas, nobody may ask for any more specific regional information about this language anymore), and also only one series of asking for the language family (e.g. no more asking for subfamilies once the QM admits that a language belongs to a certain macrofamily)? That would limit the brute-forcing to a reasonable amount, and it would diminish the trend towards extremely obscure languages, I hope...

[kuroda]

What about allowing only one series of asking for regional hints (e.g. once the current quizmaster admits that a language is spoken in the Americas, nobody may ask for any more specific regional information about this language anymore), and also only one series of asking for the language family (e.g. no more asking for subfamilies once the QM admits that a language belongs to a certain macrofamily)?

I like that idea. It's not as draconian as what I (and I think someone else, at some point) tried to stipulate earlier (no family/region guesses at all). In fact, this could, maybe, add a bit of strategy to the 'game' -- ask a broad question early to get a head start, or avoid using up that 'wild card' question until it really narrows things down. (Maybe.)

It still all depends on the willingness of the quizmaster to stick by these (or any other rules). Even if some of us aren't very satisfied with the recent state of things here, some of us obviously are still enjoying it this way!

[Travis B.]

The thing is do we want to make it next to impossible to guess languages in many cases, if we allow PNG languages but make it harder to guess them?

I personally have not been in this game, but from watching I would have to say that the best solution is to disallow PNG languages.

[Vijay]

Well, you did make a guess once when I posted a text in Soqotri.

What Cedh is proposing sounds to me like what already happened the first time I posted a text here. Does that look closer to the direction y'all would like to see this game go in?

[Vijay]

And opipik's text is in Au.

[opipik]

And opipik's text is in Au.

Nope.

Just kidding, it's your turn!

Here's the text in a more recent orthography:

Hɨrak kan katɨp mɨt me mɨtɨk ik. Hɨrak yaaik kɨre si mɨr, te mɨt yapɨrwe nemtau hɨm me Jon, hɨr nanises mɨtɨk ik. Hɨrak hɨrekes ap mɨtɨk ik au. Hɨrak kan katɨp mɨt hɨm me mɨtɨk ik yaaik kɨre si mɨr.

[Vijay]

Okay, let's see whether this text is any easier:

Moy I (jahaaj)

Moy ek 1,697 ton, loha ke paal waala jahaaj rahaa jiske 1885 me Russel & Company, Nourse Line khatir banais rahaa. Iske jaada kar ke girmitya logan ke dhoe ke khatir kaam me lawa jaawat rahaa.

3 May 1889 ke Moy 677 girmitya logan ke lae ke, pahila dafe, Fiji pahuncha. Iske baad ii jahaaj dui dafe aur Fiji aais aur West Indies bhi girmitya logan ke lae ke gais. Iske girmitya logan ke West Indies se India lautaare khatir bhi kaam me lawa gais.

1905 me jab ii jahaaj Guiana se lautat rahis tab ii samindasr me herae gais.

Once someone gets this right, I'll reveal where this text comes from. EDIT: Well, OK, that's actually easy enough to figure out via Google...

EDIT2: I think "samindasr" may be a typo and it should be "samundar" (unless maybe I misunderstood that word).

[opipik]

Fiji Hindi.

[Vijay]

Yeah, I got it from the Fiji Hindi Wikipedia. Fiji Hindi always makes me laugh or at least smile when I read that Wikipedia. It looks a lot like how Indians outside India in general speak Hindi.

Your turn!

[opipik]

Liex hir lircorqi

(Lax) Nia ngir sefhuif zerrenf yif, yinweif sefhuif der ga wur gofxinf zifyiyr gix congfenf farzanx
dif cex.
(Liex) Nia ngir ga wur jjuanlif gix zifyiyr rim dur, xxim farlvr jjiodenf wur xianfzif dif, jjiar
xianfzif jjiodenf weiryir wur murdir nia wur jjuanlif gix zifyiyr yif hix zzenrenf gix zunzongf liex
baoxzenf, minrzux wur sefhuif der daofder, gonggongf zifxuf gix puxbianf furlif wur zenfdangf
ddim siryinf.
(Sax) JJiar jjuanlif gix zifyiyr xinrsix, cyx jjinxinr addif bbumlix Lianrhor Guir wur zongzix gix
yuanrzer weirbeif zir hix.

Sax hir

JJiar xuanyanr wur cyx ddiaowenr, bbumlix hof zir xxix dur cyx guirjia, jidduan xxamsir nia ngir
xxim jjiar xuanyanr wox wur jjuanlif gix zifyiyr gaox girnor wur hordongf xxamsir xinrweir rim
jjuanlif yif xxix zir hix.

[Vijay]

Tujia?

[opipik]

Tujia?

Nope.

[Vijay]

Bai?

EDIT: Or is it really Tujia, in which case were you just trying to pull my leg again?

[opipik]

Bai?

EDIT: Or is it really Tujia, in which case were you just trying to pull my leg again?

Nope and nope.

[Vijay]

Muzzi?

[opipik]

Muzzi?

You googled it, right? That's against the rules. But you won.

[Vijay]

I googled one word from it (namely "JJiar"), and I don't think there's any other way anyone would have won that one since I'm not even sure there are any other texts online in that language. I think we really should try sticking to less obscure languages.

So, here's a verse from a country's national anthem! Which language is it in?

Opo, kondreman un' opo!
Sranangron e kari un'.
Wans' ope tata komopo
Wi mu' seti kondre bun.
Strey de f' strey, wi no sa frede.
Gado de wi fesiman.
Eri libi te na dede
Wi sa feti gi Sranan.