This translation was written and posted from Mdewakanton Dakota lands / Sept. 29 1837

Treaty with the Sioux of September 29th, 1837

"We Will Talk of Nothing Else": Dakota Interpretations of the Treaty of 1837


The last installment of this series was already four months ago, but inspiration struck last night and I managed to jot this down fairly quickly. I can't guarantee I haven't made any mistakes in this translation, but it's my own conlang so I don't think anybody's going to check.

The rules are, as usual, that I can only reveal one word at a time, unless revealing a word would give away the meaning of a whole line — in other words, if I tell you what "yoezjevyefe" means, I can't tell you what "psett" means later, and vice versa. At the bottom of this post you'll find the words sorted by length and frequency to help you choose which words to ask me to reveal: longer words appearing once will tend to be more specific, shorter words appearing many times will tend to be grammatical particles which can help you figure out the sentence structure.

You will also find some basic information about the song at the bottom of the post, which could very well be all you need to guess the song correctly. Just remember that when you do guess the song, that you should spoiler your answer. The first person to guess the song correctly will get replied to with :congratulations: and will be asked how they managed to figure out the song.

Now, without further ado...


Yoezjivye na Yesjutange
Nozjivye u aniv ane
Nay ko runge nga yapsey re
Yayesjutangdama, nee
Hozjevye udette e
Majoe nay k'yerungeve
Psett yoezjevyefe
Yoezjev ane Yesjutange nga e...

Yoezjivye na Yesjutange
Nozjivye u aniv ane (so sjo)
Nay ko runge nga yapsey re
Yayesjutangdama, nee
Nozje nay sotte onede
Na pe ganarrav rikkəska
Yekyertevye nga nay pejjeske
So bububonav Svitjara
Hozjevye udette e
Majoe nay k'yerungeve
Psett yoezjevyefe
Yoezjev ane Yesjutange nga e...
(E, kyerte!)

Nay yemozzjuletti ngene,
Nay Yesjutangev svite (so sjo)
Zjaletti u zjaletti va e
Tavfatti re yesebite
Ye nga pya nay kottey keme
Va Nikolaya-Dum-Une
Ye nga nay bansinske
Va ootti lingvyune

Na fe, sjo yoezjev ane nga
E so ye na yaspina
Ngene nay mozje
Yoezjev ane Yesjutange nga e...
(E, kyerte!)

Yeyesjutanguni nga
Yoruketti buhe (nneyoruketti)
So sjo yeehiv dri nga
Yoeetti hesuhe
Buheyniya surəttey
Yavyun'gilla takettey
Svitjara nga yenozjev ane kott ye
Miis, sje, yekyertevye-ye-yee

Yoezjivye na Yesjutange
Aniv ane, u sje nga fe:
Hozje sintti yekyertev oge
No huyne u na noode
Hozjevye udette e
Majoe nay k'yerungeve
Psett yoezjevyefe
Kyerte, yoezjev ane Yesjutange nga e... (e, kyerte!)
(Yoezjev ane Yesjutange nga e, kyerte...!)


About the song

Country: USA

Genre: pop, pop soul

Time period: Mid 1990s

Popularity: >600M views on YouTube


Words appearing multiple times by frequency and length

Appearing twice: Fe ・ Ko ・ Sje ・ Nee ・ Ngene ・ Runge ・ Yapsey ・ Zjaletti ・ Svitjara ・ Nozjivye ・ Yekyertevye ・ Yayesjutangdama

Appearing three times: Va ・ Re ・ Aniv ・ Psett ・ Majoe ・ Udette ・ Hozjevye ・ Yoezjivye ・ K'yerungeve ・ Yoezjevyefe

Appearing four times: Ye ・ Sjo

Appearing five times: So ・ No ・ Kyerte

Appearing six or more times: E×13Na×7Ane×10Nay×12Nga×15Yoezjev×6Yesjutange×8


Words appearing once by length

2~4 letters: Pe ・ No ・ Pya ・ Dum ・ Une ・ Dri ・ Oge ・ Keme ・ Buhe ・ Kott ・ Miis

5 letters: Nozje ・ Sotte ・ Onede ・ Svite ・ Ootti ・ Mozje ・ Hozje ・ Huyne ・ Noode

6~7 letters: Kottey ・ Yeehiv ・ Hesuhe ・ Sintti ・ Yaspina ・ Yoeetti

8 letters: Ganarrav ・ Rikkəska ・ Pejjeske ・ Tavfatti ・ Yesebite ・ Nikolaya ・ Surəttey ・ Takettey ・ Yenozjev

9 letters: Bububonav ・ Bansinske ・ Lingvyune ・ Yoruketti ・ Buheyniya ・ Yekyertev

10+ letters: Yesjutangev ・ Yavyun'gilla ・ Nneyoruketti ・ Yemozzjuletti ・ Yeyesjutanguni

  • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]
    hexagon
    ·
    edit-2
    16 days ago

    congratulations So, what sorts of hints did you use? The "about the song" hints, the structure of the lyrics, or was just revealing that one word by itself enough to get it?

    Actually, to be perfectly honest...

    I wanted to write this translation specifically so that people would say "Oh, fuck you!" when they figured out what it was.


    Sent from Mdewakanton Dakota lands / Sept. 29 1837

    Treaty with the Sioux of September 29th, 1837

    "We Will Talk of Nothing Else": Dakota Interpretations of the Treaty of 1837

    • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      16 days ago

      The structure of the lyrics and the one word, basically. It was repeated a lot so first I tried to think of songs that did that. The first song I thought of before asking was No scrubs, even though it didn't really fit.

      spoiler

      Actually, to be perfectly honest...

      I wanted to write this translation specifically so that people would say "Oh, fuck you!" when they figured out what it was.

      Lol, if it helps that's what I thought to myself.. data-laughing