This was originally posted by dojaduolingo
Update: Yola now has a wiki - you can track and support the revival of Yola here: https://yola.fandom.com/wiki/Yola_Wiki
Update 2: Follow the Yola community on Twitter - @YolaLanguage
HELO! VAU AAR JY?
So, I’m currently trying to revive the Yola language which was once spoken in Wexford, Ireland. I’ve been using old books and pretty much any resources I could find to try figure out the pronunciation (along with doing some comparisions to Modern English, Middle English and Dutch). The language was an early form of English spoken from Ireland, and seems to have developed to become more distinct than Scots but was eventually replaced with Standard English.
The resources I’ve been using are primarily Wikipedia, Wiktionary and an old archived book by George Poole on the “Forth and Bargy” dialect from the 1800s (a common name for the language). I’ve reformed the writing to be more consistent and as phonetic as a Germanic language can get while also trying to give it its own linguistic quirks (with purpose of course, I’m not trying to purposely making it distinct to English). So far, I would say English and Modern Yola (Nýu Jola) are mutually intelligible; possibly as much as Spanish and Italian or Dutch and German.
Here are some links about the language:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_and_Bargy_dialect#
https://archive.org/details/aglossarywi ... 0/mode/2up
Here are some texts (the first is an old poem in the new orthography):
Y Meidh ov Roslaar (The Maiden of Rosslare)
‘Cham gowyn tu tel dhy óa taal at is dru
Aar is ing Roslaar óa méidh gaud an dru
Shu weerdh ing her hat óa ribon at is blu
An shu goedh tu y Faaidh eerchy dey tu
Ich myzil by ing y Faaidh eerchy dey zu
At ich zy dhicka meidh vo is gaud an dru
An ich by to isholdh y meidh, y meidh at dru
An vo kuum to y Faaidh wy ribbon blu
Chul myzil go to Roslaar eerchyy deie tu
Tu zy dhaar y meidhe wy her ribon blu
An chul her estolt vor her ribon blu
Y meidhe at is lyghtzoom, an wel wydhyn an dru
Ich luuv y meidh wy y ribon bly
Here is the first article of the UDHR (with an English and Dutch translation):
Jola
Aul men aar y-born vry an alik ing wordhship an ryghts. Dhei aar béy-gift wy understhoonyn an lyghtzoomhud an shauld treet oonanuur ing óa gaast ov broverhud
Scots (its closest relative)
Aa bodie sauls ar born free and scleff in mense an richts. Thai ar dotit wi wit and stickles and suid ack thither ane anither in a spírit o britherheid.
English
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Dutch
Alle mensen worden vrij en gelijk in waardigheid en rechten geboren. Zij zijn begiftigd met verstand en geweten, en behoren zich jegens elkander in een geest van broederschap te gedragen.
Please note that this first Yola translation will probably be changed over time as I find more new terms or add to the lexicon and dictionary.
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Right now, I’m working on developing a three-way English-Yola-Irish dictionary with all the terms I have found across the various sources and then I’d like to work on a grammar book and expanding the vocabulary to have more complex and modern vocabulary (mainly drawing from roots, similar to German and Dutch as opposed to directly borrowing from French - although French words; either from Middle English or through Irish like gorson found in original texts will be kept).
Does anyone have any advice/opinions to help me on my journey to revive Yola?
Is there any organisations that I could send Yola to? Any organisations that try to preserve languages?
Or any sites I could use to create an online dictionary?
Ich dhank jy vor ha y-reed! Thanks for reading!
