Please identify the language

[vijayjohn]

Neat! I've never heard much Armenian before, especially in music. That would probably be part of the reason why I had no idea it might be Armenian.

[languagepotato]

So, i accidentally stumbled on a song that I ended up really liking. But I have no idea what language it's in. Anyone know which language it's in?


it's this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47jj726crQQ

[vijayjohn]

It's a gospel song in Kikuyu, which is apparently the Bantu language with the highest number of native speakers in Kenya. Barack Obama's father is from the Luo ethnicity, who are apparently rivals with the Kikuyu, so there are some reports that when Obama was running against Hillary Clinton, the Kikuyu supported Clinton instead.

[Osias]

the Kikuyu supported Clinton instead.

Ave credo!

[Johanna]

My signature used to be perfectly legible. But my father advised me that that made it too easy to copy so I worked on making it into more of a scrawl. Now it's basically a line with bumps.

My dad went that route too, the line with bumps one. The thing is, it got a bit too simple, which my twin sister demonstrated at the age of 11 when she learnt how to copy it perfectly within a couple of weeks.

She never did it for nefarious reasons, only for fun, so Dad was the first to know about it. He added a few complexities to his signature pretty fast...

[Moraczewski]

Hello, it's me again, but not with shortwave radio but with an asian-sounding pop song. (Not the music sounds asian, it's usual western-type pop ballad, but the language). I believe it must be something like Korean. The song features quite long spoken word part near the end starting at 3:30, it may help as well.
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0tQrczld6eh

[Osias]

I used app for android called Shazam that identified the song as
김종찬 by 독백. So it's Korean.

[linguoboy]

I used app for android called Shazam that identified the song as
김종찬 by 독백. So it's Korean.

You have that backwards: 김종찬 is the singer and the title is 독백 which means "soliloquy".

Here's a site with the romanised lyrics. I can't find one which gives a translation: http://lyrics.jetmute.com/viewlyrics.php?id=497698.

[Osias]

Oh, well, that was the Shazam app that mistook the song by the singer, then.

[Karavinka]

안개꽃 너의 생일엔 뒤로 한 채 술잔을 들었지
다치기 쉬운 가슴으로 아픔처럼 너를 사랑했지
다 주고 싶었어 외로움 속에 살아온 나의 세월
그 세월만큼 널 안고 싶었어
부르면 나는 달려가 세상 눈물 알지 못하게
끝까지 너를 지켜 봐주고 싶었어
어디든 떠나가야 한다 이젠 그만 나홀로 건배를

Holding the babies-breath (flower) behind me, I lift the glass
I loved you with the pain, with my heart that is easily hurt
I wanted to give you all my days that have been lived in loneliness
I wanted to embrace you as much as those days
Once you call me, I'd run towards you, so that you wouldn't know the tears of the world
and look after you until the very end
I must leave now, to wherever it may be; not anymore, I toast alone

다 주고 싶었어 외로움 속에 살아온 나의 세월
그 세월만큼 널 안고 싶었어
부르면 나는 달려가 세상 눈물 알지 못하게
끝까지 너를 지켜 봐주고 싶었어
어디든 떠나가야 한다 이젠 그만 나홀로 건배를

(repeated)

바람처럼 살고 싶진 않았다
울리지 않는 전화벨 소리는
더 이상 내게 아침이 오지 않을것처럼 보였고
아직 기억하고 싶은 일들을 서둘러 지우라고 말한다

I didn't want to live like wind
The ringtones that don't sound anymore
made me feel like the morning won't come again
and told me to erase quickly, what I still want to remember

사랑으로 인해 얻어졌던 나의 자유는
날개를 잃은 채 잠시 쉬고 있다
어느새 나는 감정에 이기지 못하는
작은 남자가 되어 포기할 수 없는 마음으로
포기할 것 없는 하루를 보냈다

My freedom that was obtained through love
has lost its wings and is resting for a brief time
I became a small man, who cannot fight back his emotions
spending a day where there is nothing to give up
with the heart that will not give up

언제나 다시 시작하기엔 늦었고
여기서 끝나기엔 아직 이른 이율배반 속에서
뒷모습만은 슬프지 않고 싶다
따뜻한 겨울을 맞이하고 싶다
나를 사랑했던 사람이 아니 내가 사랑했던 사람이
나의 눈물을 밟고 웃어야한다면 그것조차
사랑할 수 있는 보다 인간적인 인간이고 싶다
잊어달라는 말은 하지마라
어차피 내가 할 수 있는 건 독백뿐이니

Always caught in the self-contradiction, too late to start again
but too early to end it here
I don't want to look sad from behind
I want to welcome a warm winter
I want to be a more humane human, so that I could love
eve If the one who loved me, no, the one whom I loved
is to tread on my tears and smile
Don't tell me to forget
All I can do is to talking alone

[vijayjohn]

Wow, thanks, Karavinka!

[MrArt]

Good evening all,

My wife and I own a painting that is signed in a language that we're unable to identify. It also features some text on the back of the canvas in what appears to be arabic. If anyone can help us identify the languages of these two pieces of text, it would be much appreciated.

Kind regards,

MrArt

[vijayjohn]

Looks like Arabic to me.

[Ruch77]

Definitely arabic
First one said something about cost 40 Dinar
Dinar its a arabic middle eastern currency
Second writing it says something about year 1977 and the name of the artist Hassan

[Doctor Atomic]

This is a pic of a museum replica my father owned, it came to me after he passed away and I am curious what the language is. I tried digging around Google Images but found nothing that matched. I'd love to be able to tell visitors what language this is when they ask instead of only shrugging.

thanks

[vijayjohn]

Looks like cuneiform to me. Maybe Sumerian?

[księżycowy]

Or Akkadian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Elamite, or Old Persian.

And yes, it's Cuneiform.

[Osias]

Now wanderlusting for Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Elamite, and Old Persian.

[vijayjohn]

Or Akkadian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Elamite, or Old Persian.

And yes, it's Cuneiform.

Does it really look that vague? The Akkadian, Hittite, and Old Persian samples I could find looked more etchy, if that makes any sense. Ugaritic was written in an abjad that looks pretty different from this sample. The only Elamite sample I've managed to find so far (with an admittedly quick search) is this one, which has way too many dots to resemble this museum replica.

[księżycowy]

It's a reproduction, and doesn't look very close to any of the actual artifacts I've seen. It leads me to believe it's a bit more "artistic" and clean than any originsl tablet to me. If that makes any sense. Not that I'm an expert. Or looked at a lot of Cuneiform artifacts.

Though if I had to guess, I'd probably go with Sumerian or Akkadian as a starting point and Branch out from there as necessary.