What language could this person speak?

A forum for discussing linguistics or just languages in general.
Post Reply
User avatar
mira
greek
greek
Posts: 759
Joined: 14 May 2016 11:59
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

What language could this person speak?

Post by mira »

So I came across a person on reddit asking about learning Java (on a completely irrelevant sub). This was the post's title and contents:
How you to learn Java?
How u have start. To. Learn Java and someone know good sites which introduce in programming ?
This person clearly does not know English natively (unless they're very young, but then why are they asking reddit about learning Java?), but what language could they be trying to translate from? I'll probably ask them at some point, but I thought it might make for a fun little game to try and guess the language.

Any ideas?
website | music | she/her | :gbr: native :deu: beginner
User avatar
Creyeditor
MVP
MVP
Posts: 5091
Joined: 14 Aug 2012 19:32

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Creyeditor »

So their native language seems to have a periphrastic construction for 'to begin' which looks like 'have a start at something'. I know of no such language, but their probably are some. Embedding seems to work differently, but we cannot really be sure. There is also no inversion in questions, but that's the default crosslinguistically. The preposition introducing the object of introduce seems to be 'in' instead of 'to'. This is the case for German (einführen in etwas) and probably some other languages as well.
Creyeditor
"Thoughts are free."
Produce, Analyze, Manipulate
1 :deu: 2 :eng: 3 :idn: 4 :fra: 4 :esp:
:con: Ook & Omlűt & Nautli languages & Sperenjas
[<3] Papuan languages, Morphophonology, Lexical Semantics [<3]
User avatar
lsd
greek
greek
Posts: 740
Joined: 11 Mar 2011 21:11
Contact:

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by lsd »

French is possible...
How u have start. To. Learn Java and someone know good sites which introduce in programming ?
Comment vous avez commencé à apprendre Java et qui connait (de) bons sites qui introduisent à (la) programmation...
(sometimes my English is so torrid...)
Iyionaku
mayan
mayan
Posts: 2102
Joined: 25 May 2014 14:17

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Iyionaku »

lsd wrote: 24 Nov 2017 17:37 French is possible...
How u have start. To. Learn Java and someone know good sites which introduce in programming ?
Comment vous avez commencé à apprendre Java et qui connait (de) bons sites qui introduisent à (la) programmation...
(sometimes my English is so torrid...)
I doubt it's French because the concept of past participles is shared by both English and French, hence "have start" is not a mistake French people would do, I assume.
My first guess was Indonesian (mainly for the lack of inflection), but as Crey already comments and knows much about it (afaik), he would have come up with it beforehand.
Wipe the glass. This is the usual way to start, even in the days, day and night, only a happy one.
User avatar
Creyeditor
MVP
MVP
Posts: 5091
Joined: 14 Aug 2012 19:32

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Creyeditor »

Iyionaku wrote: 06 Dec 2017 11:46 My first guess was Indonesian (mainly for the lack of inflection), but as Crey already comments and knows much about it (afaik), he would have come up with it beforehand.
I don't really know how you would ask that question in Indonesian, but nothing rings a bell. The (over)use of 'to' and the complete absence of relative pronouns (you would probably use 'yang' several times in that sentence) might be a counterargument.
Creyeditor
"Thoughts are free."
Produce, Analyze, Manipulate
1 :deu: 2 :eng: 3 :idn: 4 :fra: 4 :esp:
:con: Ook & Omlűt & Nautli languages & Sperenjas
[<3] Papuan languages, Morphophonology, Lexical Semantics [<3]
User avatar
Sequor
sinic
sinic
Posts: 438
Joined: 30 Jun 2012 06:13

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Sequor »

Iyionaku wrote: 06 Dec 2017 11:46
lsd wrote: 24 Nov 2017 17:37 French is possible...
How u have start. To. Learn Java and someone know good sites which introduce in programming ?
Comment vous avez commencé à apprendre Java et qui connait (de) bons sites qui introduisent à (la) programmation...
(sometimes my English is so torrid...)
I doubt it's French because the concept of past participles is shared by both English and French, hence "have start" is not a mistake French people would do, I assume.
Counter-argument: the space between the last word and the question mark. In French, punctuation marks which consist of two components must be preceded by a space:
  • Tu t'appelles comment ?
    Je m'appelle Rachel !
    Il n'y reste qu'une question : pourquoi est-ce qu'il n'a pas utilisé l'article défini avant le mot « programmation » ?
I don't know why they didn't write "in the programming" though.
hīc sunt linguificēs. hēr bēoþ tungemakeras.
Iyionaku
mayan
mayan
Posts: 2102
Joined: 25 May 2014 14:17

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Iyionaku »

Serafín wrote: 08 Dec 2017 06:43
Iyionaku wrote: 06 Dec 2017 11:46
lsd wrote: 24 Nov 2017 17:37 French is possible...
How u have start. To. Learn Java and someone know good sites which introduce in programming ?
Comment vous avez commencé à apprendre Java et qui connait (de) bons sites qui introduisent à (la) programmation...
(sometimes my English is so torrid...)
I doubt it's French because the concept of past participles is shared by both English and French, hence "have start" is not a mistake French people would do, I assume.
Counter-argument: the space between the last word and the question mark. In French, punctuation marks which consist of two components must be preceded by a space:
  • Tu t'appelles comment ?
    Je m'appelle Rachel !
    Il n'y reste qu'une question : pourquoi est-ce qu'il n'a pas utilisé l'article défini avant le mot « programmation » ?
I don't know why they didn't write "in the programming" though.
Huh. I learn French for five years without ever hearing from it. Quick google search turned your absolutely right, though. What do we pay school taxes for?
Wipe the glass. This is the usual way to start, even in the days, day and night, only a happy one.
User avatar
OliveAnne
rupestrian
rupestrian
Posts: 14
Joined: 20 Nov 2017 11:44
Location: Chesterfield

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by OliveAnne »

I think he's talking about JavaScript? the language of web development (of course it's irrelevant here...)
Words are capable of making experience more vivid, and also of organizing it. They can scare us, and they can comfort us - Jonathan Safran Foer [tick]
User avatar
Isfendil
greek
greek
Posts: 668
Joined: 19 Feb 2016 03:47

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Isfendil »

Actually this kinda looks like Farsi to me. Mainly because the preposition [be] has both locative and dative meanings, and it is very easy to make the sentence grammatical without changing word order or anything in Farsi.

ʧeʤur (mitɒn-i) ʃuru dɒʃte.bɒʃ-i be yɒd.gereftan e ʤɒvɒ va kasi sɒjt-hɒ e xub midɒn-e ke marfi.mikone be <programming>
how (IPF-can-2S) start have-2S DAT learn-GER CNS java C IDF.PRON site-PL CNS good know-3S REL introduce-3S LOC <programming>
Zythros Jubi
sinic
sinic
Posts: 417
Joined: 24 Nov 2014 17:31

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Zythros Jubi »

Well, how to say "programming" in Farsi?
Lostlang plans: Oghur Turkic, Gallaecian Celtic, Palaeo-Balkanic
User avatar
eldin raigmore
korean
korean
Posts: 6352
Joined: 14 Aug 2010 19:38
Location: SouthEast Michigan

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by eldin raigmore »

In my opinion they could speak standard English but have autocorrect turned on.
abi
cuneiform
cuneiform
Posts: 77
Joined: 19 Aug 2010 21:09

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by abi »

Obviously Java is short for Javanese and are from Indonesia, so probably Indonesian. [;)]
User avatar
Creyeditor
MVP
MVP
Posts: 5091
Joined: 14 Aug 2012 19:32

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Creyeditor »

Why not Javanese, if they mention Java?
Creyeditor
"Thoughts are free."
Produce, Analyze, Manipulate
1 :deu: 2 :eng: 3 :idn: 4 :fra: 4 :esp:
:con: Ook & Omlűt & Nautli languages & Sperenjas
[<3] Papuan languages, Morphophonology, Lexical Semantics [<3]
Birdlang
greek
greek
Posts: 631
Joined: 25 Dec 2014 20:17
Location: Virginia

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Birdlang »

They could be Sundanese. I’m not sure how that sentence would work in Basa Sunda though...
Or Madurese. I’m thinking some kind of Asian language, though I wouldn’t be sure.
It could even be some African language too.
User avatar
qwed117
mongolian
mongolian
Posts: 4094
Joined: 20 Nov 2014 02:27

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by qwed117 »

My guess is somewhere in India, or the Phillipines, since I've seen a lot of similarly formatted spam from that region. "to learn" makes me feel like Indo-Aryan languages are out of the option since they're inflecting like English. Tagalog would explain "have start to learn", since it doesn't have tenses, but does have aspects (which makes me think this person is translating using a dictionary). Wikipedia suggests that Tagalog uses a single oblique case, which could additionally explain "in programming".
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
The SqwedgePad
Birdlang
greek
greek
Posts: 631
Joined: 25 Dec 2014 20:17
Location: Virginia

Re: What language could this person speak?

Post by Birdlang »

Maybe could even be a Dravidian language. Something to me suggests Tamil, Tulu or Malayalam, but I don’t know how that sentence would work in those.
Post Reply