Sunday, March 13, 2005
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Once again it's related to local government, this time the free publication Haringey People. At the end of the current issue is an offer "Do you want to access this magazine in your own language?" followed by several format options (large print, on disk, on audio tape, Braille) and several language alternatives. The previously-mentioned Turkish and Somali are included in the list, as well as Bengali, French, Kurdish and today's mystery entry, labeled Shqip). Below I copy the Shqip entry (in its entirety):

A doni të qasni këtë revistë në gjuhën tuaj? Haringey People tani mund të përkthehet në shumicën e gjuhëve falas. Për të rregulluar një seancë me një përkthyes, kompletoni formularin e mëposhtëm.

Of course it would probably be easy to figure out the entry using Google, just plugging in one or two of the words in the entry (or the name Shqip). Much more difficult to try and solve the puzzle without "external resources" but simply my own knowledge about the area (quite limited, I must admit, having only lived there for six weeks), and possibly aspects of the language sample as well. For the moment I am stuck, but I will let some time pass before admitting defeat and googling "shqip". I'll eventually stick a solution in the "comments" section.
Sunday, March 13, 2005 7:04:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Oh come on! This one is soooo easy...! Well, if you know what the name of the country is in the language anyway.

Here's a rather abstract clue:

Stamp-collecting

Or slightly less so:

Byron

That's your lot.
Monday, March 14, 2005 1:35:15 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Indeed, I don't know the name of the country in the language (and it's been a huge battle of willpower to prevent myself from googling it).

I was planning on taking a closer look at the localities advertised at international call centres in the area, but hadn't gotten there yet. I had it pretty much narrowed down to the Balkans thanks to population of the area and process of elimination (not Germanic, not Romance, uses the same alphabet as English except for ë), plus some guessing (I didn't think it was an African language for unknown reasons).

But your clues have done the trick. Maybe not the stamp-collecting one (can you explain yourself?) but Byron made it easy.

The mystery language is ....





Albanian. More on the language and the north London Albanians soon.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 4:16:31 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Ahh... Albanian. Had I recognized the language, I would have given you the abstract clue:

Horseflies

Byron as a clue threw me for a minute because I knew it wasn't Greek or Italian, although -- as an aside -- I feel like I recognize reviste (without the dots over the e) as an Italian verb. Or I could just be mixing it up with la rivista (magazine). I'd have to go look it up to be certain.

As it is, I originally thought the mystery language may have been some teens delighted about the Motley Cruë reunion tour.

Enjoying your blog.

bdw
Wednesday, March 16, 2005 5:09:48 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Oh, this is great fun -- though I think I just snorted with laughter in a silent newsroom as I read the Somali entry about getting hit with pierogis.
Heather-in-law
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