Wiktionary:Todo/Impossible translations

Introduction

Many books, websites, online communities and even Wikimedia wikis are dedicated to playing "what if" with dead languages- how would these languages have responded to concepts, technologies, things and events that didn't exist or were unknown when the languages were spoken. These are full of terms that people have made up using authentic morphological elements and rules in order to imitate these languages as closely as possible. This may be fun, even educational, but none of these should ever appear in Wiktionary entries. Since no authentic speaker of a dead language could possibly have used those terms, they inherently fail WT:ATTEST.

For example, Old English Wikipedia has an article titled Wæterwand about the platypus. Australia was unknown to Europeans until modern English times, so this is obviously made up.

These are periodically added to translation sections by clueless people, and people with agendas, so constant vigilance is necessary.

You can use the following for any language by replacing the "ang" with the language code you want to search for:

• Search for Old English translations

Geography

Eurasia

No verified contact with the Americas before 1492, except for limited contacts by Old Norse speakers

No verified European contact with Australia before 1606

Ancient references to Asia should be checked as to whether they refer to the continent or to Asia Minor

History

Countries

This is tricky, because some countries didn't exist as a unified state until modern times, but may share their name with a region

• Dominican Republic
• Haiti
• North Korea
• Northern Ireland
• South Korea
• Soviet Union

Life forms

Americas

Plants

• cacao/chocolate, chile pepper, kidney bean, maize, peanut, pecan, pineapple, potato, pumpkin, redwood, squash sunflower, tobacco, tomato, vanilla

Animals

Mammals

• alpaca, coyote, guinea pig, jaguar, llama, raccoon, skunk, sloth

Birds

hummingbird, meadowlark, mockingbird, turkey

Reptiles

• alligator, anaconda, iguana, rattlesnake

Amphibians

• bullfrog

Australia

Plants

eucalyptus, wattle

Animals

Mammals

kangaroo, koala, platypus

Birds

cassowary, emu

Technology

• Airplanes
• Automobiles
• Computers

List of languages to watch for

• See Category:All extinct languages

Extinct languages with hobbyists

• Gothic (got^{,WP S})
• Old English (ang^{WT,WP S}}
• Old Norse (non ^S)
• Old Prussian (prg ^S)

All

A-E

• Akkadian (akk ^S)- to ~ 1st century
  • Old Akkadian (akk-old ^S)
  • Assyrian:
    • Old Assyrian (akk-oas ^S)
    • Middle Assyrian (akk-mas ^S)
    • Neo-Assyrian (akk-nas ^S)
  • Babylonian:
    • Late Babylonian (akk-lbb ^S)
    • Middle Babylonian (akk-mbb ^S)
    • Neo-Babylonian (akk-nbb ^S)
    • Old Babylonian (akk-obb ^S)
    • Standard Babylonian (akk-stb ^S)
• Baekje (pkc ^S)- to ~7th century
• Carian (xcr ^S)- attested to 3rd century BCE
• Celtiberian (xce ^S)- to ~1st century
• Crimean Gothic (gme-cgo ^S)- attested 1562, to ~18th century
• Cumbric (xcb ^S)- to ~12th century
• Curonian (xcu ^S)- to ~16th century
• Dacian (xdc ^S)- 1 inscription, mentions in Greek & Latin, probably extinct by 6th century
• Dalmatian (dlm ^S)- to late 19th century
• Demotic (egx-dem ^S)- ~650 BCE to 5th century CE
• Egyptian (egy ^S)
• Elamite (elx ^S)- attested to 4th century BCE
• Eteocretan (ecr ^S)- attested to 3rd century BCE
• Etruscan (ett ^S)- to 1st century

F-K

• Faliscan (xfa ^S)- to 2nd century BCE
• Fingallian (gmw-fin ^S)- Attested 17th century
• Gallaecian (cel-gal ^S- 1st century BCE- ?
• Gaulish (cel-gau ^S)- to ~6th century
  • Transalpine Gaulish (xtg ^S)≈
• Goguryeo (zkg ^S)- to 10th century?
• Gothic (got^{,WP S})- to 9th century
• Guanche (gnc ^S)- to ~17th century
• Hadrami (xhd ^S)- ~8th century BCE to 6th century CE
• Hattic (xht ^S)- 2nd millenium BCE
• Hittite (hit ^S)- to ~12th century BCE
• Hurrian (xhu ^S)- attested to end of 2nd millenium BCE
• Iberian (xib ^S)- to ~2nd century
• Illyrian (xil ^S)- to ~11th century
• Jurchen (juc ^S)- to ~16th century

L-N

• Latin:
  • Classical Latin (la-cla ^S)
  • Old Latin (itc-ola ^S)
  • Late Latin (la-lat ^S)
  • Medieval Latin (la-med ^S)
  • Vulgar Latin (la-vul ^S)
• Lemnian (xle ^S)- attested 6th century BCE
• Lepontic (xlp ^S)- to ~6th or ~2nd century BCE
• Lusitanian (xls ^S) attested 1st century
• Luwian (xlu ^S)- to ~7th century BCE
• Lycian (xlc ^S)- to ~3rd century BCE
• Lydian (xld ^S)- to ~3rd century BCE
• Marsian (ims ^S)
• Marrucinian (umc ^S)
• Minoan (omn ^S)
• Moabite (obm ^S)
• Mozarabic (mxi ^S)- to ~13th century?
• Mycenaean Greek (gmy ^S)- to ~12th century BCE
• Mysian (yms ^S)

O

• Old Church Slavonic (cu^{,WP S})- to ~11th century
• Old English (ang^{WT,WP S})- to 12th century
• Old French (fro ^S)- to ~14th century
• Old Galician-Portuguese (roa-opt ^S)- 9th to 14th century
• Old High German (goh ^S)- to ~11th century
• Old Irish (sga ^S)- to ~10th century
• Old Norse (non ^S)- to ~15th century
• Old Persian (peo ^S)
• Old Prussian (prg ^S)- Last texts ~16th century, extinct ~18th century
• Old Saxon (osx ^S)
• Old Turkic (otk ^S)- to ~13th century
• Oscan (osc ^S)- to ~1st century

P-R

• Paelignian (pgn ^S)
• Parthian (xpr ^S)
• Phoenician (phn ^S)- to ~2nd century BCE
• Philistine (und-phi ^S)- to ~9th century BCE
• Phrygian (xpg ^S)
• Pictish (xpi ^S)
• Prakrit (inc-pra ^S)- 3rd century BCE to 8th century CE
  • Ardhamagadhi Prakrit (pra-ard ^S)
  • Helu Prakrit (pra-hel ^S)
  • Khasa Prakrit (pra-kha ^S)
  • Magadhi Prakrit (pra-mag ^S)
  • Maharastri Prakrit (pra-mah ^S)
  • Sauraseni Prakrit (pra-sau ^S)
• Punic (xpu ^S)- to ~6th century
• Pictish (xpi ^S)

S-Z

• Sabaean (xsa ^S)
• Sabine (sbv ^S)
• Sicel (scx ^S)
• South Picene (spx ^S)
• Sudovian (xsv ^S)
• Sumerian (sux ^S)- to ~1700 BCE, learned and religous usage to ~1st century CE
• Thracian (txh ^S)- to ~6th century
• Tocharian A (xto ^S)
• Tocharian B (txb ^S)- to ~9th century
• Ugaritic (uga ^S)
• Umbrian (xum ^S)- 7th to 1st century BCE
• Urartian (xur ^S)
• Vandalic (xvn ^S)
• Volscian (xvo ^S)

Easily confused

Modern language	Code	Dead language	Code	Notes
Arabic	ar	Ancient North Arabian, Old South Arabian	xna, sem-srb	There are also modern South Arabian languages
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	aii	Assyrian	akk	The extinct language is a variety of Akkadian
Bulgarian	bg	Bulgar	xbo
Egyptian Arabic	arz	Egyptian	egy
Franco-Provençal	frp	Old Provençal	pro	Old Provençal is a variety of Old Occitan
Greek	el	Ancient Greek	grc	With scholarly and religious usage, the Greek lects are probably too complex to easily sort out
Ligurian	lij	Ancient Ligurian	xlg
Lombard	lmo	Lombardic	goh	The extinct language is a variety of Old High German
Macedonian	mk	Ancient Macedonian	xmk
Persian	fa	Middle Persian, Old Persian	pal, peo
Venetian	vec	Venetic	xve

Complexes

• Arabic
• Aramaic
  • Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
  • Syriac
• Chinese
• German
  • High German
    • Alemannic German
  • Low German
• Greek
  • Mycenaean Greek
  • Ancient Greek
    • Classical Greek
    • Epic Greek
    • Koine Greek
  • Modern Greek
    • Greek
    • Mariupol Greek
    • Pontic Greek
    • Tsakonian
• Malay
• Nahuatl
• Norwegian
• Persian
  • Ancient
    • Avestan
    • Old Persian
  • Middle
  • Modern
    • Dari
• Serbo-Croatian

Exceptions

Learned and religious languages

Kept alive by scholars or adherents of religions

• Ancient Greek (grc ^S)
• Avestan (ae ^S)
• Church Slavic (cu^{,WP S})
• Coptic (cop ^S)
• Ge'ez (gez ^S)
• Latin (la ^S)
• Pali (pi^{,WP S})
• Sanskrit (sa^{WT,WP S})

Revived languages

Eurasian

• Cornish