This man and this lizard are celebrated in song for a feat that was eventually replicated in 1903 by a Norwegian.
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A Roguish Chrestomathy - A mondegreen illustrated
the pultaceous wisdom of a word weevil
Well, the characters aren't Cree syllabics, as I first thought, but Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics ... except for the ampersand. I read it out as
A O NA LI & A NO
except that
1. I don't know what to make of the superscript position and size of the NO (3rd from the left), and
2. I have no friggin' idea what it means, but I don't think it's in a First Nations language, but rather something in English that I'm not getting.
Maybe #2 means the NA is a final, so
A O N LI & A NO
Show me the way to go home,
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed...
That's it. Good night.
Edited at 2010-05-15 03:15 (UTC)
A O NA LI & A NO
except that
1. I don't know what to make of the superscript position and size of the NO (3rd from the left), and
2. I have no friggin' idea what it means, but I don't think it's in a First Nations language, but rather something in English that I'm not getting.
Maybe #2 means the NA is a final, so
A O N LI & A NO
Show me the way to go home,
I'm tired and I wanna go to bed...
That's it. Good night.
Edited at 2010-05-15 03:15 (UTC)
Your transliteration suggests to me that the lizard is an anole.
In that case, the 1903 achievement was by an Ole.
- The small, raised ᓐ is indeed a final.
- These are proper names of... well, let's say legendary or allegorical characters, so in a sense they don't really belong to any one particular language.
- That said, Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics are used to write several different languages, and some of the symbols have different phonetic values in different languages.
- The particular language (or group of languages) whose conventions I have followed here is the one that is most appropriate to the man in the picture.
- Technically speaking, it is an Aboriginal language, but not a First Nations language.
- I'm using ᐊᐅ here to approximate a sound that does not exist in this language, but which would be represented simply as ᐅ in many of the other languages that use this syllabary.
- The lizard is not an anole.
Further hints for them as wants 'em:
- About the song: Vg'f n genqvgvbany onyynq gung unf orra erpbeqrq ol, nzbat bguref, Yvnz Pynapl, Yhxn Oybbz, Znegva Pnegul, naq Fvaŕnq B'Pbaabe, naq funzryrffyl evccrq bss ol Obo Qlyna.
- About the Norwegian: Urer'f n cubgb V gbbx bs bar bs gur znal fgnghrf bs uvz gung pna or sbhaq va Gebzfb̷.
- About the lizard: Nf V fnvq, vg'f abg na nabyr. Abgr gur oyhr gnvy.
If I have the song right, it contains the lines:
Bayl gur Rfxvzb jvgu uvf fxva pnabr
Jnf gur bayl bar gung rire pnzr guebhtu
but I admit I don't see where the modegreen comes in.
Edited at 2010-05-15 19:43 (UTC)
Bayl gur Rfxvzb jvgu uvf fxva pnabr
Jnf gur bayl bar gung rire pnzr guebhtu
but I admit I don't see where the modegreen comes in.
Edited at 2010-05-15 19:43 (UTC)
Never mind—I just noticed it! Silly me.