# What language is this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868 "2007-07-15T16:42:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/1 "2007-07-15T16:42:20Z")
What language is this, and what does it mean? \> Dobru din, Grigoru. Prihud so min. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/2 "2007-07-15T16:44:09Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] What language is this, and what does it mean? \> Dobru din, Grigoru. Prihud so min. [/QUOTE] Well, it’s certainly a Slavic language of some sort. “Dobru din” means “good day” and is a greeting, although none of the Slavic languages I’m familiar with has this exact phrase as a greeting. It’s the “u” at the end of “dobru” that throws me off. “Grigoru” would be a declined version of “Gregor.” Since it has declentions, that leaves Bulgarian out. It’s definitely not Polish, either. I’m guessing the second sentence means “Come to me.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/3 "2007-07-15T16:45:55Z")
The [Xerox Language Guesser](http://www.xrce.xerox.com/competencies/content-analysis/tools/guesser-ISO-8859-1.en.html) says Slovenian. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/4 "2007-07-15T16:49:16Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] The [Xerox Language Guesser](http://www.xrce.xerox.com/competencies/content-analysis/tools/guesser-ISO-8859-1.en.html) says Slovenian. [/QUOTE] I know a spattering of Slovenian, and it doesn’t look like Slovenian to me, other than it looks generically Slavic. Good it be one of the artificial pan-Slavic languages? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/5 "2007-07-15T16:55:19Z")
I’m making some more assumptions here, if “Grigoru” is the vocative of “Gregor,” then that rules out Russian. (Russian doesn’t use vocatives much anymore except in certain phrases). Slovenian also does not use the vocative. Polish does, but I know Polish, and that’s not Polish. Czech has a “-u” ending vocative, but Czech’s “good day” is “dobry den.” ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/6 "2007-07-15T17:27:22Z")
Uh. . . is it starting out Slavic and then moving into Hungarian by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/7 "2007-07-15T22:25:39Z")
[QUOTE=capybara] Uh. . . is it starting out Slavic and then moving into Hungarian by any chance? [/QUOTE] I can’t contribute much except to say that none of that is Hungarian. ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/8 "2007-07-15T22:41:33Z")
Guessing… Romanian? ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/9 "2007-07-15T22:48:50Z")
Is it possible the source has typos? Like is it an internet chat or something? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/10 "2007-07-15T22:49:18Z")
What are you basing your guess on? Do you actually know anything about Romanian, or are you making a wild guess? ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/11 "2007-07-15T22:49:35Z")
Are you copying something you heard? If this is the way it’s spelled, I have no idea, although it’s almost certainly a Slavic language, but if you heard it or copied a transcript, I’ll guess Russian. Russian translation: “Good day, Grigori. Come with me.” If it’s Russian, then the speaker knows Grigori well, because he’s using the informal “Thou” form of speech. On edit: If it’s a transcript, I’d guess Russian, because Russian is so hard to transcribe exactly syllable for syllable if you aren’t trained in the language. Kipling, for example, was awful at transcribing it, and he’s not the only one. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/12 "2007-07-15T22:53:32Z")
[QUOTE=DudleyGarrett] Guessing… Romanian? [/QUOTE] It’s not Romanian or Hungarian (neither of which are Slavic, for starters). ---
**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/13 "2007-07-15T23:00:34Z")
I’m with DudleyGarrett, I did a Google search with quotations on the “Dobru din” phrase. I knew to do this because my wife was helping me and she is Polish 😃 …on every hit I got from the search the “.ro” was at the end of the internet address. So I have a strong feeling this is Romanian. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/14 "2007-07-15T23:09:14Z")
Well my Googling on “dobru” alone is pointing more to Serbo-Croat or Slovakian. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/15 "2007-07-15T23:12:36Z")
[QUOTE=Thinktank] I’m with DudleyGarrett, I did a Google search with quotations on the “Dobru din” phrase. I knew to do this because my wife was helping me and she is Polish 😃 …on every hit I got from the search the “.ro” was at the end of the internet address. So I have a strong feeling this is Romanian. [/QUOTE] But what about the verb? Romanian verbs don’t conjugate like this, as far as I can tell (Actually they seem to conjugate almost like Spanish or Portuguese verbs. Either that, or I need to lay off the languages for a while 🙂 ). Whatever the language “Prihud” is almost certainly “come” or “go”, probably “come”, because of the prepositional phrase following it. “So min” sounds a lot like “So mne”, which is Russian for “with me”. If this phrase means something different in another non-Slavic language, that’s an awfully big coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/16 "2007-07-15T23:17:05Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] What language is this, and what does it mean? \> Dobru din, Grigoru. Prihud so min. [/QUOTE] Just had a :smack: moment, because I realize I should have asked this at the start: Where did you hear or read this phrase, **Wendell**? That might offer a clue. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/17 "2007-07-15T23:18:08Z")
This is a phrase from an English-language novel by Anthony Boucher. It’s in a language spoken by someone in the novel. Someone I know wants to find out if it’s a real language. Everyone seems to agree that it’s close to various Slavic languages. It doesn’t seem to match exactly any Slavic language that anyone who’s been asked about it knows. It’s possible that a language has been made up for the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/18 "2007-07-15T23:25:09Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] This is a phrase from an English-language novel by Anthony Boucher. It’s in a language spoken by someone in the novel. Someone I know wants to find out if it’s a real language. Everyone seems to agree that it’s close to various Slavic languages. It doesn’t seem to match exactly any Slavic language that anyone who’s been asked about it knows. It’s possible that a language has been made up for the novel. [/QUOTE] Do you know the name of the novel? It doesn’t sound like it’s an entirely made up language. Boucher or whomever he consulted might just have a tin ear when it comes to transcription. Now that I think about it, this reads like it could be Bosnian or Serbian. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/19 "2007-07-15T23:48:58Z")
It’s clearly not an entirely made-up language. I don’t know the name of the novel. It isn’t made clear what language it’s supposed to be. It may be that in the novel there is an alternate history in which a slightly different Slavic language evolved than in the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868/20 "2007-07-16T00:14:46Z")
**Linty Fresh** my wife should be writing this thing herself, but she is telling me that “so mnoy” is Russian for “with me”. She has an immense interest in languages and in learning them so I’ll take her word for it. It’s also not Bosnian, no word on Serbian. “Dobru” is the dead-ringer for the slavic basis that everyone is talking about, which is to say it’s not the best word to search on. My wife says that the only word that conjugates in this phrase is “prihud” which I’m being told is in some form in many slavic languages. So if this is not Romanian I don’t have any more leads. Maybe the best move would be to try and find a website for the author. I’m constantly surprised how easy it is to contact writers because they make themselves websites- of course the authors I’m talking about are not exactly Stephen King, heh [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-language-is-this/411868.md?page=2)