[This is a guest post by Martin Schwartz.]
"Unknown language #10" (12/1/17) left all stumped, including a broad range of superb scholars of many languages. I have no Rosetta Stone for it, but have something that may be called a Russetta or Rusetta (as in ruse) Bone.
First, the mystery text, which was the focus of Language Log Unknown Language #10, I reproduce it here as was transmitted there:
Ukhant karapet qulkt kirlerek
Iqat ighun chapuq sireleq,
Poghtu Paghytei Piereleq
Azlayn qoghular eliut karapet.
Now, to the above I give a set of verse found in Aleksandr Kuprin's Russian novel Jama ('The Pit'), 1909-1915:
U Karapeta est' bufet
Na bufete est' konfet,
Na konfete est' portret
Ètot samyj Karapet.
'Karapet has a buffet
On the buffet is a bonbon (vel sim.)
On the bonbon is a portrait,
It's the very same Karapet.'
In both texts we have four rhyming lines, in which KARAPET (k/K) is the second word of the first line and next-to-last word of the last line.
I see three possibilities:
1) A purely random correspondence between the two texts; this I very much doubt.
2) The "mystery text" is some kind of imitation of the Russian in some real language (whose original form seems compromised by an inadequate transcription; cf. the commentary on the original post); possibly, then, -ek, -eq represent a past-tense morpheme;
3) An imitation of the Russian, but in a fake language. I'm inclined toward the last possibilty. In any event, the imitation, unlike the Russian, does not repeat words from one line to another, so that a translation or paraphrase from the Russian seems ruled out.
I remembered the Russian verses from an e-letter to me by the very learned ethnomusicological researcher Ilya Saitanov (Oct. 2021); it was sent during the course of an exchange about a melody apparently originating among Terek Cossacks in Nauri Chechen territory, whence the tune spread among various Caucasian groups, importantly Georgians and Armenians, becoming popular in Russia, the Ukraine, Yiddishland, and the Greek world. The name Karapet figured in Russia as a typical Armenian name, folklorically and literarily sometimes taking on traits of pathos and diminution. The name is from Classical Armentian karapet, an equivalent of Greek Pródromos, Russ. Predteča, 'Forerunner' = John the Baptist; the Armenian is now known to derive from an early West Middle Iranian (Parthian or Middle Persian) reflex of Old Persian *kāra-pati- 'head of a work-team (< OPers. kāra-'group of people', -pati- 'chief') attested in Persepolis Elamite transcription and later paralleled by Sogdian, perhaps as a word of Achaemenian origin.
While Karapet as John the Baptist had some pagan accretions in Arm. folklore, he is not found as a pre-Christian god, despite Wikipedia, "Karapet". The West Armenian form is Garabed.
In conclusion, Kuprin's verses seem very relevant to L.L.Unknowm Language #10, whose focal text remains mysterious. I'm curious to see what my comparison stirs up.
Addendum on immigrant names
Immigrants to the US take equivalents of their original names, usually by partial phonic similarity. Thus German Hans (< Johannes) > Henry; Greek Dimitios via diminutive Dimis > Jimmy > James; Italian Salvatore > Sam alongside Sal (whence among Greeks Sotiris *'salvational' > Sam), Yiddish Itsik > Isidore, and now Persian Keyvān (*Saturn) > Kevin; West Armenian Dikran *Eastern Tigran ('Tigranes') > Dic > Richard, and Garabed/Karapet via Karl/Carl > Charles. For the West Arm.-American kid in my grade-school locker room, "Garabed meant Charlie". He was just a kid, not a linguist, and I found his remark charming,
Selected reading