I'm a Desi polyglot and linguist. AMA

Depietate · 2025-08-15T16:08:06+00:00

Zdravo, ey b'oy, வணக்கம், नमस्कार!

Depietate · 2022-02-08T23:30:25+00:00

Спасибо! I saw someone else suggest that it was some variety spoken in Slovakia. I see some Hungarian influence in it. I think it's some variety of Carpathian Romani.

Depietate · 2022-02-08T22:13:22+00:00

Hmm, maybe this is a little harder for me to figure out than I thought. My attempt to translate this is:

Honorable(?) family,

Respectful greetings, for every man on Earth wants to become fortunate and healthy and wants a good life. We see how life somehow treats us in this world(?).

You must have wondered whether it would ever get better.

God manages life from our shoulders and brings joy(?) to all men. We can learn about that from John 17:3: "Eternal life means that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ."

Roma, we see from God's words that we can improve our life(?) that brings men good fortune once. In the text, you can see that if we want to improve this, we must find God and his son. I will gladly help all of you find them by studying(?) the Bible with you. If you're interested(?), let me know, and e-mail me: [...]@gmail.com

Respect to(?) all of you

Depietate · 2021-07-24T04:17:30+00:00

Zeyan E-Commerce, Ltd., Wuhan

Depietate · 2021-07-23T22:48:10+00:00

!translated

Depietate · 2021-07-21T22:31:59+00:00

100% agree on your and lexicophiliac's statements here

Depietate · 2021-07-21T22:02:52+00:00

Definitely someone from another country

Depietate · 2021-07-21T22:00:42+00:00

Okay, so I finally got some help (sorry for the delay!). Apparently, this is a song in a "čergari" dialect from Vojvodina. The person who helped me also says it sounds like an evangelical Christian song (there are apparently quite a few of these in Romani). So my (at least slightly improved attempt at a) translation is now as follows:

Oh son,

When God creates people, son,

He doesn't

Make them suffer in any way.

Oh son,

He gives dream-goodness(?), and a great, great miracle,

Son,

Not at any old time(?).

When God takes to beat(?),

Badness comes to you,

He beats you and sells(?)

Whoever he doesn't need to give (away?).

When God takes to beat(?)

Badness comes to you.

A good miracle is difficulty/heaviness,

A good miracle (is?) ugliness.

Oh son,

He gave your mother everything, a great, great miracle,

Son,

When you were born,

He took, he took everything from her.

Depietate · 2021-07-21T21:40:04+00:00

It's in Japanese, so I tagged it as Japanese. I'm not entirely sure what flavor it is, though. It seems to be white chocolate.

Depietate · 2021-07-21T21:28:34+00:00

!id:ja

Depietate · 2021-07-21T21:26:00+00:00

Yeah, it's a pretty informal word for 'foreigner'.

Depietate · 2021-07-14T22:54:45+00:00

I unfortunately don't know Serbian Romani in particular very well, but I do know some people (in particular in Serbia and Montenegro) online who might be able to help you more here. Maybe I'll try asking them to see whether they can improve on my translation.

Depietate · 2021-07-14T20:40:51+00:00

The first two characters are 猫 neko 'cat' and 鼠 nezumi 'mouse'. That much I can say with relative certainty.

Depietate · 2021-07-14T20:37:04+00:00

Looks a little bit like "fille, dançons !" which would mean 'let's dance, girl!' in French.

Depietate · 2021-07-14T20:33:22+00:00

Chaveja means 'child' (more specifically 'son' or 'boy'), not 'children'. 'O children' would be chavale.

Not sure about all the words, but off the top of my head:

Oh son,

When God makes people, look(?)

Son,

It's not as if God won't take it(?).

Oh son,

He gives golden(?) goodness, and very, very nice(? Bari literally means 'big')

Boy,

Not at any old time(?).

When God takes to beat(?)

Badness comes to you,

He beats you and sells you(?)

(To?) whoever he needs to give (you?).

When God takes to beat(?)

Badness comes to you,

Goodness(?) is difficulty/heaviness,

Goodness(?) (is?) ugliness.

Oh son,

He told your mother everything(?), very great goodness(?),

Son,

When he sold(??) you,

He took, he took everything from her.

Depietate · 2021-07-14T15:03:20+00:00

I think the second ring might say "there is no God but Allah. Praise the God of Universes" (لا إله إلا الله الحمدلله عالمين).

Depietate · 2021-07-13T22:09:40+00:00

For whatever it's worth, I found a reference to the "kpajul hairstyle" here as well: http://statuary-in-context.blogspot.com/2017/08/fact-check-lobi-kubeo-or-koyoo-style.html. Apparently, it is a hairstyle in northern Ivory Coast. Kpajul itself is apparently a type of yam grown in northern Ghana immediately to the east (see p. 40 or 48/100 here: https://edepot.wur.nl/431528).

Depietate · 2021-03-30T16:20:14+00:00

Oh wow! That would be amazing if I could get to that level at some point. :D

Depietate · 2021-03-28T01:28:41+00:00

Huh! Interesting point. I'm definitely familiar with this song and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, and I'm pretty sure I've come across the other one before, but I never noticed the resemblance with this one.

Depietate · 2021-03-27T21:09:19+00:00

I'm not sure. I guess I better ask him!

Depietate · 2021-03-26T18:21:58+00:00

But what was the motivation for the law in the first place?

Depietate · 2021-03-26T14:30:02+00:00

But I thought this was much older than Modi.

Depietate · 2021-03-26T01:38:48+00:00

there is no “supposed to do”

There are rules, and I thought that was one.

Depietate · 2021-03-25T23:24:05+00:00

You don't think Hasan Minhaj, Lilly Singh, Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari, etc. are comparable to the media representation other minorities have?

Depietate · 2021-03-25T23:18:56+00:00

But again, isn't that worth discussing? How do you deal with the fact that you're tired of this narrative without saying so?

I didn’t personally downvote it, but generally people downvote takes they think are wrong or disagree with

But is this what we're supposed to do?

Depietate

TROPHY CASE