What language is this?

[El Teboso]

I know this isn't spanish, there's no way It could be. A friend of mine says he found this written on the back of a piece of scrap paper at the downtown library in one of the books. What I wan't to know is: Is he just pulling my leg? Or is this an actual to goodness language? I know what his handwriting looks like, and what's on the paper doesn't match up with his handwriting. Plus the scrap paper looks pretty yellow and old. It's cracked around the edges, too, which means it was written on paper with tinges of acid in the pulp.

I know enough about that to know that most paper producers these days produce acid-free paper, so It would probably have to be at least 20 years old, I think? I'm not sure. In any case, anyone have any idea? It could be some kind of code, I think, too... Hmm...

Te Jatra mi jana, y nieda a lastar varientras a estoy jiera. -- Montesão

[Gina]

Normally when I want to know what language something is in, I use the "Detect language" feature on Google Translate. Google Translate says that is in Spanish, though I don't recognise many of the words. I thought it was maybe Portuguese because of the letter ã, but no.

The actual translation (from Google Translate, which is not trustworthy but can help us here):Jatra you my jana, and nieda to Last varientras to'm jiera. - Montesão

This is mangled worse than it would normally be. This seems to suggest it is a language that Google Translate doesn't know, and it has picked out the few words it recognises and likened it to Spanish (if you compare this to the original, you can see the words it has translated are Spanish words). It is probably a dialect that is related to Spanish.

[El Teboso]

Hmm... Where is the Detect language feature on google translate? I can't seem to find it. Thanks a lot, gina.

[Gina]

If you go into the list of languages, you'll see "Detect language" in there, above the main list.

It might not have given a definite answer in this case, but I find it can be very useful sometimes (unlike the actual translations from Google Translate, which are a bit dodgy in some languages, and really dodgy in others).

[droe82]

Does the handwriting look really practiced? Maybe if it's someone wasn't good at writing, there are gross spelling errors.

I searched for "Montesão" and got something about a Portuguese creole in Cape Verde. So there's always that possibility: it might not be a language proper but an extremely idiosyncratic dialect of another and therefore not readily translatable. I mean, I'm not saying it's necessarily Cape Verdean, but maybe something like that.

Teboso, do you live around a major population center?

[Perikles]

@droe82: I see you have a sense of humour

Native Language: English. I actually speak it pretty good

[JPablo]

Seems that Droe82 is in the right path... but it is hard to say. There is a "Montesão" in Coimbra (north of Portugal) and another in Brazil...

Besides "Montesão" the other words do not seem Portuguese... so some kind of Creole, may be the answer...

[Chris]

I took out all the words that were making it show up as Spanish and it gave me "We are not yet able to translate from Occitan into English."

Okay I guess I'm a little uneducated on what Creole is. I thought it was of French decent and is what some people are called in New Orleans. Going to wikipedia now heh.

Jata you my naja, and granddaughter to Last greedy to'm balances. - Montesão

And that's what it says when I spell check with a Spanish dictionary (to my best guess...) and run it through Google Translate.

[Rusty]

My

I think it's safe to say that the sentence is not a recognized language.
It is either gibberish or a code of some sort.

There are many Spanish words in the sentence but, as everyone can see, they are a jumble.

The strange arrangement of the words got me thinking that it might be a hidden message of some sort. I soon noted that 'y nieda' could easily be changed to 'y nadie'. Intrigued, I did some more rearranging and came up with 'Ana, te quiero y nadie te va a lastimar mientras estoy'. This uses words and letters from both sides of the comma, and a few from the proper name, but I didn't employ them all (and I substituted or threw in extra ones). I think the 'j' that occurs only at the start of words is there to throw us off the scent.

Admitted, this was a stretch of my imagination, but if I'm right about a hidden message, all of a sudden that old bookmark takes on a deeper sense of meaning.

[JPablo]

Well, hopefully Ana will get the message... otherwise we should ask Sophie Neveu and professor Langdon... (or Dan Brown for that matter!)