Balaibalan: Exploring One of the World's Earliest Conlangs

Balaibalan is considered one of the world's first examples of a constructed language. It was intended to be the word of God, and if so I'm totally doomed after the chicanery in which I engage during this video.
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#history #conlang #language #linguistics
Sources (just as links cuz MLA was for university only)
www.iranicaonl...
www.jstor.org/...
en.wikipedia.o...
brill.com/view...
www.iranicaonl...
archivesetmanu...
www.isa-sari.c...
www.iranicaonl...
iranicaonline....
en.wikipedia.o...
• Balaibalan Top #13 Facts

[@Alex-qb7ri]

I thought this was a video about an internet serial killer with that avatar or something, because the thumbnail is just so creepy

[@tzshchsjsjxijyo]

what

[@pallasproserpina4118]

When are you going to cover the oldest conlang-Irish

[@dioni_progaming66]

😫

[@ovrair6340]

My man dissing the Irish. I mean it's kinda true tho

[@TheZetaKai]

That orthography though!

[@DaEpikMan]

Ngl that orthography do be odd Like Taoiseach, It’s kinda pronounced Téushich.

[@based1195]

Weird orthography is valid give my mans a break

[@Avicerox]

Hurufis also believed that letters and numbers possess mystical, and sometimes supernatural properties, hence the name Hurufis, coming from Huruf, which I think is plural for Harf, or letters, kinda like gematria, but weirder. Unsurprisingly, much of their work ended up being used in supposed Dark Magic texts everywhere in the Muslim World, the infamous Shams-Ul-Maarif also possesses some similar stuff, so I kinda understand how Astarabadi managed to become high, considering his entire upbringing was around a movement on LSDs.

[@AKnightofIslamicArabia]

Correct, 7orouf is the plural of 7arf.

[@martinomasolo8833]

Even though long ā is distinguished from short a in transliteration (as I from E, one is written, one is not) technically within "the persian vowel system" one should attribute an open /ɒ/ sound to the "long" ā and a close /æ/ sound to the "short" a. Hope this made it clearer to you!

[@AgmaSchwa]

Oh cool! Thanks for letting me know :)

[@DwAboutItManFr]

Is it possible that one of our allegedly natural languages is just a really old conlang?

[@hakced]

yes i don't beleive in the existance of the Kongo languag 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@tzshchsjsjxijyo]

@@hakced i so agree 👌

[@_yellow]

>English

[@hakced]

@@_yellow no, english is a pidgin of nivkh and shoeshone.

[@didack1419]

Some would call some standardised languages like Modern Hebrew and Standard Basque "conlangs".

[@johnburke8337]

Was it the impression of this school of Islam that the New Testament was originally Aramaic? That felt out of place granted some Aramaic sources may have fed the Greek Aside from this, this was super fun to watch, and I’d definitely watch more historical conlang stuff like this. The teeth thing is super fun lol

[@AgmaSchwa]

Yeah I should have clarified, that was Gulshani's idea of the New Testament's original language.

[@johnburke8337]

@@AgmaSchwa that makes complete sense. I sort of want to dig up the Italian book you mention too and maybe Gulshani’s dictionary. It’s fun stuff

[@Painocus]

@@AgmaSchwa It's possible he meant the Diatessaron or the New Testament sections of the Peshitta. These were widely used versions of the New Testament in Syriac Christianity and written in Syriac Aramaic. While they are today generally considered translated from the Koine Greek texts this might not have been entirely known/obvious at the time since Jesus himself and the earliest Christians spoke Aramaic. The Koine Greek New Testament has a number of like Aramaic loanword and phrases that makes more sense in Aramaic. (For example the entire "camel through the eye of a needle"-thing was in-part wordplay on the Aramaic word for camel also being slang for a type of really thick rope (which also couldn't pass through the eye of a needle).) Or he might have used "New Testament" (or whatever he wrote that got translated as "New Testament") to mean the actual language the gospel as said by Jesus was 'revealed' in, and not the literary text that records it.

[@aldebaranlover]

“guize!!! guize no you misunderstand!!! god speaks this langwige, i can proev it!!!”

[@Periwinkleaccount]

AkshyuaIy I agre!1!!1!1! I am a “relijous figgure” and I completely 100% agreee! He talked in that language when I had a -dream- visit from him that was totally real guize!

[@tzshchsjsjxijyo]

"seriously guys i have totally real proof to prove that god really does speak the conlang i made!!!"

[@charliethomas2217]

The new testament of the Bible was written entirely in Koine Greek...

[@AgmaSchwa]

oh I know; Gulshani didn't though, haha

[@charliethomas2217]

@@AgmaSchwa ah, didn't know that - good to know. Liked the video, btw.

[@AgmaSchwa]

awesome, thanks!

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

Would have been cool to see the text in balaybalan compared with that in Persian, Arabic and Turkish

[@k.umquat8604]

As a Turk I am proud to see Baleybelen mentioned in a video.

[@janKanali]

ok

[@ThatOneCrusader]

@@janKanali tf u mean "ok"?

[@Vin01743]

The thumbnail scares me

[@SurfTheSkyline]

Is the music cue that happens on the who made it transition slide around 1:50 literally an extremely dissonant reharmonization of "the lick" commonly used in jazz improv? It seems reasonable that a channel about language stuff would appreciate musical vocabulary and throw something in as a gag like that. Or maybe I am crazy.

[@karlpoppins]

Yes, Agma Schwa uses the lick as a gag a lot.

[@swagmundfreud666]

The man plays the E-we, of course he knows about all that shit.

[@DS-hw8id]

BRO IVE BEEN WAITING ON THIS

[@wagnerjunior6524]

I have a question maybe you can answer: if our vocal folds DO NOT vibrate when we whisper, so how can I still feel and hear the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds when I whisper them????

[@AgmaSchwa]

So essentially there are smaller but noticeable differences in the way we release various consonants in English depending on where in the word/syllable a sound appears and just in the way they are released in general. For example, the difference between /p/ and /b/ (much of the time) is more than just the voicing. At the beginnings of words /p/ is aspirated and comes out as [pʰ], so at the very least while whispering you’ll have [pʰ] vs. [p] at the beginning of words, along with other more subtle differences. After that it’s just context. “Unstoppable” might sound like “unstoppaple” while whispering, but English speakers know the -able suffix and can infer that “unstoppaple” is actually “unstoppable.” Hopefully this helps, haha

[@wagnerjunior6524]

@@AgmaSchwa It really helps! Thx a lot!

[@Periwinkleaccount]

2:52 he has the X character drip pose.

[@enricobianchi4499]

the vowel system is identical to persian fyi

[@gronkmanyee]

Did you just hit me with the lick?

[@TheLukeLsd]

É muito interessante

[@viny8885]

Oi! Brasileiros por aqui também, pelo jeito.

[@TheLukeLsd]

@@viny8885 sim, sim!

[@viny8885]

@@TheLukeLsd Uau! Já viu como o Papai Noel fala?

[@TheLukeLsd]

@@viny8885 aham.

[@xenotiic8356]

This was a fun vid

[@DollyBoy_1923]

This dude’s hilarious 😂😂

[@astonishing157]

my dumbass read it as balbanian

[@janKanali]

yay new video

[@hakced]

i shitted myself

[@n3ishere]

thank you for sharing hakced

[@Periwinkleaccount]

😊

[@hakced]

@@Periwinkleaccount you will shitted yourself too, soon.

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

Nice

[@DrYusufBaytar]

interesting...

[@rashinti1564]

Its (faz.lal.lāh.as.ta.rā.bā.dī)

[@martinomasolo8833]

Bro don't diss my boy Alessandro Bausani 😂😂😂 He did his best! It was the '60s after all. But persianists are weird with transliteration tbh :))

[@betos-08]

Do you know where I can find the dictionary?

[@ArealRDR2]

Dilsizlere dil veren

[@k.umquat8604]

Baleybelen

[@Kovboy993]

@@ArealRDR2 evet

[@anamcaraxi]

How can I get a pdf of that Italian translation of the dictionary??

[@nyuh]

thats the pillow again !!!!

[@callmemackeroni]

Yes. Mister ŋə is indeed down bad.

[@incorporealnuance]

The music is way too loud and it makes it hard to hear what you're saying

[@MURDERPILLOW.]

0:01

[@waspsandwich6548]

Why is Gulashadi's face so toothy?? Why you gotta deface bro like that?

[@N0T_KnowN]

AZERBAİJAN'S first language: Pierro (My Conlang) Pr: Azeribagano odynĉ malao : Pierroplanlingvo ŭotgogo, Pierro.(Mie tono'languxi) Ŭotgogo-I mean

[@Ayxan_Eyvaz]

Mən Azərbaycan dili üçün özümdən əlifba yaratdım