The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

This would have to be done one word at a time and clearly to have any chance. I just brought up a video in portuguese to test (I cannot understand it, but am familiar with its ties to spanish and other romance languages so i get a word here and there) and it's a complete non starter to even try to write it down. 

• omdilia trente dewes unyos sot brazil de terut sao paolo maz veskiturzian skoviv un paranaon je fustudar uuh furomacum proffesor je portugues espanyol nao apremereves kuv ... uduguay jevinu truz vez, ee kiminkun tenten viriki
  

and the auto-transcript:

• o meu nome é Marília eu tenho 32 anos sou do Brasil do interior de São Paulo mas faz 14 anos que eu vivo no Paraná onde eu fui estudar H me formei como professora de português e espanhol não é a primeira vez que eu venho para Uruguai já vim outras vezes e o que me encanta tanto em vir aqui
  

Thanks a lot!

I could only guess a few words from your transcription.  As you can see comparing with the auto-transcript, it has many missing and spurious word breaks.  Besides from sound inconsistencies, the  part 

• "maz veskiturzian skoviv un paranaon je" 
  

should have been split as 

• "maz ves kiturzi ans k o vivu n parana onje".
  

Unlike Spanish, Portuguese spelling rules are almost as bad as those of English.  Here is my attempt to write what she is saying in a sort of phonetic orthography, but still using mostly letter values of Portuguese:

• u mêu nômi é marília êu têñu trínta i dôiz ânus sôu du brazíu du interiô di sãu paulu mas fais katôrzi ânus ki êu vívu nu paraná ôndi êu fúi istudá mi formêi komu profesôra di portugêis i ispañóu nãu é a primêra vêis ki vêñu pru uruguái vin ôutras vêzis i u ki mi inkânta tântu en vir akí 
  

Here "é" and "ê" are like in French "frère" and "mes pieds" or Italian "bello" and "bene".  The "ó" and "ô" are like Italian "notte" and "dolce" or English "boy" and [there is no English word with that sound ].  The "ñ" is like French "mignon" or Italian "gnocchi".  The "ã" is a bit like English "bun" but with some of the voice coming through the nose (it is not used in Spanish, Italian, and most other European languages; maybe the sound exists in French too, but not sure).  

I tried slowing the video down to 25% speed but strangely that made it harder to recognize the sounds.  Maybe because the plosives like "t", "d", "p", "b", "k", "g" got lost?

You are right that, for the experiment to be more applicable, the text should be dictated one word at a time, or, better, one syllable at a time.  I will try to prepare such a sample...

All the best, --stolfi