# Unknown Language: duneta sapis, si cuneta lagis



## boruma

> duneta sapis, si cuneta lagis


 
this is a motto or aphorism, to guess from the circumstances of my coming across it, but, from the rural fastnesses of northern New England,  I don't know how to find out what language is involved. If it is an accepted invented language, it may have borrowed elements that living languages developed for their own use (beside the obvious Roman letters). the "si" word perhaps connotes a conditional or an affirmative ['if' or 'yes'], and the '-is' could be second person singular verb forms.

That, however, is rank speculation and doesn't solve the problem. Over to you kind experts!


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## badgrammar

It certainly _looks_ like Latin, but then I don't know Latin, and may be quite wrong .


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## Abu Bishr

I think the text might be Bulgarian.


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## Chazzwozzer

Duneta can be ют, полуют then it's Russian written in Latin alphabet or any other Slavic language. Maybe Bulgarian, like Abu Bishr said.


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## DrWatson

If it is some Slavic language written in Latin alphabet, what's the 'c' doing there? If it's Cyrillic c, then wouldn't it be transliterated as [s]? My guess is Latin, or possibly Esperanto.


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## Outsider

DrWatson said:


> If it is some Slavic language written in Latin alphabet, what's the 'c' doing there? If it's Cyrillic c, then wouldn't it be transliterated as [s]?


It could be Cyrillic [ts]. However, it looks very much like Latin to me. I just do not know the words.


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## Chazzwozzer

DrWatson said:


> My guess is Latin, or possibly Esperanto.



As a learner of Esperanto, I'd be surprised if it was in this language. I don't say it cannot be Esperanto, since I'm still learning, I just say it doesn't sound Esperanto to me.

Duneta and cuneta can be possible adjectives since it ends with "-a" but the following words, sapis and lagis can never be nouns. And since adjectives should modify the nouns, then it's not possibly Esperanto.


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## cyberpedant

Looked up some of the words in Notre Dame's Latin dictionary. "Si" was the only hit. Don't think it's Latin, or at least not classical Latin.


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## senor_smile

If I were to try to translate this into english from latin, assuming that this were latin, it would come out "You taste dual-nets(things spinned or weaved) if you <lag__> cuneta." It sounds like one of those fake latin phrases that you find on templates and the like when you want the person to look at the design and not the text.


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## Outsider

_Sapis_ could be a form of sapere (_sapio_).


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## senor_smile

Yes, it could.  But, the verb and accusative noun used in the second part aren't found in anything I can find to be latin.  
Cuneta does appear at on wordreference as 
a spanish word I'd never heard before(I learn something new every day) 

The fake latin that I'm referring to is that found at 
lipsum ( I can't post "URLs to other sites after you have made 30 posts or more.")
I didn't find that exact phrase in any of the text, but it reminds me of it.  Also, if you google it, you get nothing.  

Valete


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## Outsider

By accusative noun found in the second part, do you mean _lagis_? How do you know that it's a noun? I would expect a verb...


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## Frank06

Hi,


boruma said:


> this is a motto or aphorism, to guess from the circumstances of my coming across it, but, from the rural fastnesses of northern New England,  I don't know how to find out what language is involved. If it is an accepted invented language, it may have borrowed elements that living languages developed for their own use (beside the obvious Roman letters). the "si" word perhaps connotes a conditional or an affirmative ['if' or 'yes'], and the '-is' could be second person singular verb forms.
> That, however, is rank speculation and doesn't solve the problem. Over to you kind experts!



It looks like Romanian to me... Can't help you with the translation, though.

Groetjes,

F


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## senor_smile

Outsider said:


> By accusative noun found in the second part, do you mean _lagis_? How do you know that it's a noun? I would expect a verb...


No, I meant cuneta.   lagis definitely seems like a verb and would fit the pattern of an intelligible sentence. 

I wonder where this phrase was found.


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## FloVi

My suggestion: Filipino or Samoan


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## Henryk

FloVi said:


> My suggestion: Filipino or Samoan


I'd say Filipino.


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## Chriszinho85

Henryk said:


> I'd say Filipino.


This is definitely not Filipino (Tagalog).


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## HUMBERT0

Es rumano.
I think.

*I found this in a website that ended with .RO (romania?)*

*SOD*
bah,aia e duneta.

*onk*
ba cuneta


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## HUMBERT0

Is this rumanian or Italian?
*K-gula*
pai ma bag eu dupa cum ti-am spus si din cate observ sunt ferm convins ca aiul se va descurca de minune alaturi de mine. oricum stiu foarte clar ca tre sa combinam si o fetita ca am auzit ca da mai bine la public. facem clip si ne-am chisat pe liviu guta si alti ca el. succes garantat. intre timp putem sa o punem si de o bauta ca si asta am auzit sa se poarta. mai turnam un paharel (imi calc pe principi) mai chiemam si 2-3 pasari de ziua ca dau bine si ele la ochiu` obosit, le imbracam cat mai gros sa nu care cumva sa se vada negi si alte alea si avem un hit.


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## robbie_SWE

HUMBERT0 said:


> Is this rumanian or Italian?
> *K-gula*
> pai ma bag eu dupa cum ti-am spus si din cate observ sunt ferm convins ca aiul se va descurca de minune alaturi de mine. oricum stiu foarte clar ca tre sa combinam si o fetita ca am auzit ca da mai bine la public. facem clip si ne-am chisat pe liviu guta si alti ca el. succes garantat. intre timp putem sa o punem si de o bauta ca si asta am auzit sa se poarta. mai turnam un paharel (imi calc pe principi) mai chiemam si 2-3 pasari de ziua ca dau bine si ele la ochiu` obosit, le imbracam cat mai gros sa nu care cumva sa se vada negi si alte alea si avem un hit.


 
It's Romanian and A VERY STRANGE TEXT INDEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where did you get it from?? 

 robbie


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## robbie_SWE

Regarding the "duneta sapis, si cuneta lagis": I doubt that it could be Romanian. Some words do look a bit Romanian on the other hand, but don't make a lot of sense. 

cuneta = cunetă (a part of an irrigation system)
si = şi ("and") 
duneta = dunetă (a part of a ship)

"Sapis" and "lagis" aren't Romanian. 

Hope it helped, but I guess that it is another language, which is closely linked to Latin (all the words that I mentioned above are from Latin). 

 robbie


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## alitza

HUMBERT0 said:


> Is this rumanian or Italian?
> *K-gula*
> pai ma bag eu dupa cum ti-am spus si din cate observ sunt ferm convins ca aiul se va descurca de minune alaturi de mine. oricum stiu foarte clar ca tre sa combinam si o fetita ca am auzit ca da mai bine la public. facem clip si ne-am chisat pe liviu guta si alti ca el. succes garantat. intre timp putem sa o punem si de o bauta ca si asta am auzit sa se poarta. mai turnam un paharel (imi calc pe principi) mai chiemam si 2-3 pasari de ziua ca dau bine si ele la ochiu` obosit, le imbracam cat mai gros sa nu care cumva sa se vada negi si alte alea si avem un hit.


 
Yes, it's Romanian, but it's slang. K-gula is a Romanian hiphopper, hence the slang. 
I found a latin phrase that contains two of the words in the topic phrase: "ride si sapis" means "laugh if you are wise". Maybe we could start from that.


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## papillon

I believe the title phrase may be a corruption of the Latin proverb
_Cuneta sapis, si cuncta legis_ that I found here.
Not sure I like their translation.


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## mansio

It could be misspelled Latin.

"cuncta sapis, si cuncta legis" for example.

It could mean something like "you taste everything if you read everything"


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## Setwale_Charm

It does look like an invented language indeed since it doesn`t look like any of the real tongues. Looks like a combination of two or an example of corrupt spelling. It is DEFINITELY not Slavic, Samoan or Tagalog. It looks like Romanian, Moldovan? Except for the "latin-looking" sapis and lagis. Are you sure it is not some dead language?


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## alitza

I'm quite sure that Papillon and Mansio are right. It is too similar to the latin phrase to be in a different language.Besides, one could very easily take an "e" for a "c" if they're handwritten. As far as I'm concerned, this issue is settled!
Don't you agree?


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## mansio

Papillon

Your link in some Slavic language says "vse znash" for "cuneta sapis" which means something like "you know everything".

It was my first translation for sapis, then I remembered the word sapidity = taste.


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## papillon

mansio said:


> Papillon
> Your link in some Slavic language says "vse znash" for "cuneta sapis" which means something like "you know everything".
> It was my first translation for sapis, then I remembered the word sapidity = taste.


"you know everything" part actually sounds OK to me. The second part -- če vse bereš, which I think is Slovenian, would mean something like _all that <you> take_, I think is wrong. I will have to check that translation, but that's what it would mean in Russian.

Edit: I made a thread in the Slavic Forum asking to confirm the language of that Slavic website.


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## Setwale_Charm

Boruma, can you tell us more about the context where you found it? Maybe that clarifies something. See, there are plenty of dialects and minor languages that sometimes also use corrupt forms of other languages, but one cannot help wondering how one finds them in New England??


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## HUMBERT0

robbie_SWE said:


> It's Romanian and A VERY STRANGE TEXT INDEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where did you get it from??
> 
> robbie


I found it when I made a search for cuneta duneta in google, I don't know what's it about though. Many words look like they're similar to spanish: personae, suficienti, serviciu, nocturno, pagini, matinale, salutare, gradu, gestionara, si erau unele, piesa de colectzie, terminat, etc.

what's:
ma chiama foarte devreme la studio? It sounds like:
me llama fuerte al devolverme al estudio

http://www.fanclub.ro/archive/index.php/t-1861-p-19.html


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## alitza

HUMBERT0 said:


> I found it when I made a search for cuneta duneta in google, I don't know what's it about though. Many words look like they're similar to spanish: personae, suficienti, serviciu, nocturno, pagini, matinale, salutare, gradu, gestionara, si erau unele, piesa de colectzie, terminat, etc.
> 
> what's:
> ma chiama foarte devreme la studio? It sounds like:
> me llama fuerte al devolverme al estudio
> 
> http://www.fanclub.ro/archive/index.php/t-1861-p-19.html


 
As I said before, this is a text written by K-gula who is a Romanian hiphopper, it's slang and it talks about making a video for a song. 
"Ma cheama foarte devreme la studio " means " He asks me to come to the studio very early" ("devreme" ="early", "foarte" = "very").
And yes, of course they look similar to Spanish words, since Romanian is a Romance language, just as Spanish is.


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