what is this strange moon language you are speaking?

[rone]

This sign sits by the entrance to our community garden, below another one that states, in English, that people should not water their plots between 10:00 and 16:00 (because it's too warm and the water will evaporate instead of seep into the ground) and anyone caught doing so may have their plot taken back.  The text of this sign is probably meant to be Spanish, except for the bits that aren't.  It puzzles me every time i go there.

Comments

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

I presume you're more familiar than I with the differences between Spanish and Portuguese, otherwise I'd wonder if it were that. Since all I know is that they are supposedly similar.

Basque? Babelfish?

sol.
.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

Hm. Actually, I simply assumed that Basque was a Spanish dialect, but apparently it's a distinct and unique tongue. Babelfish, then.

sol.
.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh, Basque is one of the few remaining and actively spoken isolates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_isolate).

Unless!

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

the silly hypothetical connection to Georgian is somehow true.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

It's definitely not any other Latinate language i know, and even if it were, why would they make signs in English and a Latinate language that isn't Spanish for a community garden in San José?

[vatine]

Confusion between Castellano and Catalan? Confusion between Latin-American Spanish(es?) and European Spanish languages?

[yong-mi.livejournal.com]

Sticking a couple of the words in the sign in Google appears to indicate it may be Asturian. I wonder if somebody decided to play a joke when asked to translate something to "Spanish" - Asturian is also spoken in Spain, after all.

Asturian?

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Yeah, it looks like one of those languages that is that is sorta like but not Spanish.

I don't think it's Catalan, which I don't speak but was exposed to some, and struck me as a mix of Spanish and French with a dollop of Italian and a scoop of general wackiness.

Are there some immigrant communities of possible relevence in the area?

Re: Asturian?

[yong-mi.livejournal.com]

No idea about the presence of Asturian speakers in ronebofh's neighborhood ...

I am familiar with both Spanish and Portuguese and I have to admit I had to think hard to figure out what the problem with the sign was at first. On closer inspection it wasn't entirely in Castellano but the non-Castellano words weren't Portuguese either, but reminiscent of Portuguese. Then I had fun with Uiquipedia: La Wikipedia n'asturianu (http://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portada) :)

Re: Asturian?

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

No, not catalá. My vote is not asturiano, but aragonés.

Re: Asturian?

[yong-mi.livejournal.com]

Aragonés? Cool!
And there's a Bikipedia (http://an.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portalada), too!

Re: Asturian?

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, reading that brings back memories! :D

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Which bits mark it out as not Spanish, OOI? (Assuming the Latin abbreviations aren't what you're talking about.)

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

notica (nota)
almite (permite)
agan (hagan) [could just be a misspelling or typo]
peiden (pierden)

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

"almite" could be a misspelling of "admite". My guess is that this is Spanish botched by an English-speaker.

You could always ask

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

this guy (http://www.myspace.com/6497483), who has the only occurrence of "no se almite" in Google's database. You'll have to put up with (or be ready to interrupt) the background audio on every page.

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Vince is the person who gave the spelling for this sign. I suspect he is pretty illiterate in all three of the languages he speaks.