What language is this?

Discussion of natural languages, or language in general.
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Xephyr
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What language is this?

Post by Xephyr »

Does anybody know what language this song is in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UINOS-L3oVU

At first I thought it was Irish. I asked Yat who knows a little Irish-- she said she didn't think so, but didn't sound entirely sure. Cornish would be "more" "historically" "accurate" to King Arthur, I suppose, but I doubt a major motion picture like this would bother with all of that. If I knew who the vocalist was that might help, but the only names associated with the track I can find are Gareth Williams and Daniel Pemberton, who I think are both just composers.
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Re: What language is this?

Post by Vijay »

I think it could just be Irish sung by someone who has no clue how any variety of Irish is supposed to be pronounced. (It definitely doesn't sound like actual Irish).

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Re: What language is this?

Post by Frislander »

It's definitely Brittonic, not Goidelic, and I'm willing to say Welsh specifically.
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Re: What language is this?

Post by Salmoneus »

To a layman, it sounds like Welsh, or like something meant to sound like Welsh. It's probably Welsh. But, not speaking Welsh, I can't say for sure.
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Re: What language is this?

Post by Pole, the »

Judging by the comments here, it's Welsh. (Also, was made for a computer game.)
I think it could just be Irish sung by someone who has no clue how any variety of Irish is supposed to be pronounced. (It definitely doesn't sound like actual Irish).
It's official. Welsh is just Welshmen failing at pronouncing Irish. :P
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Re: What language is this?

Post by Frislander »

Going again over the recording again, I can hear the lateral fricative, which makes it pretty conclusively Welsh, which fits much better than Irish: King Arthur is definitely a Brittonic rather than Goidelic figure.
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Re: What language is this?

Post by linguoboy »

The lyricist is named Gareth Williams, wedi'r cwbl, and he has his own chorus...

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Re: What language is this?

Post by Pole, the »

linguoboy wrote:The lyricist is named Gareth Williams, wedi'r cwbl, and he has his own chorus...
Isn't a certain Peter Freeman the author of the lyrics?
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Re: What language is this?

Post by linguoboy »

Pole, the wrote:
linguoboy wrote:The lyricist is named Gareth Williams, wedi'r cwbl, and he has his own chorus...
Isn't a certain Peter Freeman the author of the lyrics?
He wasn't credited on YouTube.

That transcription seems to confirm there are no lateral fricatives in the text. (I didn't hear any, only [x].) The pronunciation is very odd. I don't know which was composed first, words or music, but they aren't matched up well at all. Words arebro kena tall thewrongs ylla bles and THE stress IS neVER where IT should fall naTURalLY. (I thought they might be trying to give it the flavour of Old Welsh by accenting final syllables, but the singer quits doing that about halfway through.) On the other hand, the r's are beautifully rolled and the vowels are good apart from a couple of munged syllables. It's like they had a Welsh-speaker produce a transcription and pass it off to someone who knew all the sounds but no actual Welsh.

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Re: What language is this?

Post by Vijay »

linguoboy wrote:Words arebro kena tall thewrongs ylla bles and THE stress IS neVER where IT should fall naTURalLY.
That sounds like Malayalee Syrian Christian church services when they try to replace all the Malayalam in the liturgy with English.

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Re: What language is this?

Post by Pole, the »

linguoboy wrote:That transcription seems to confirm there are no lateral fricatives in the text. (I didn't hear any, only [x].) The pronunciation is very odd. I don't know which was composed first, words or music, but they aren't matched up well at all.
Many people have asked about the name of the song. The video and song are named "The Life" The tune is a contemporary Welsh song called "Lament", written by the very talented duo of Daniel Lozinski and Phil Baggaley they are; "Light of Aiden" Lament was given a martial beat and new words were written by me to fit both the tune and the mythos behind the Halo stories.
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Re: What language is this?

Post by Jonlang »

It's Welsh sung by someone who has no idea how Welsh should sound...
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Re: What language is this?

Post by Yng »

I'm listening on low-ish volume but nonetheless basically incomprehensible

It actually sounds like Irish or what I am given to understand Irish sounds like. Or like Icelandic. Or like made-up pseudoCeltic.
كان يا ما كان / يا صمت العشية / قمري هاجر في الصبح بعيدا / في العيون العسلية

tà yi póbo tsùtsùr ciivà dè!

short texts in Cuhbi

Risha Cuhbi grammar

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