Is this text written by a native speaker of English?

Question

"Boundless is the steppe near the Sea of Azov (Priazovya)... But it has its own peculiar distinctive marks too. One of them attracts your sight not far from Moscow-Simferopol Highway. Here, 18 kilometres north of the town of Melitopol in the distance you will see a yellow sandy island in the green steppe. On it there is a grey mound with scattered fantastically heaped boulders. Since ancient times the people have called it the Rocky Mound.

Weather-beaten during millions of years, overgrown with green lichen, these boulders of sandstone, various in form and fantastic in their outlines, leave an impression of silent majesty. Many legends were laid about this wonder of nature."

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It's from an old trilingual book, and I'd love to know how correct it is. Is it written by a native speaker? If not, what are the mistakes?

Answer 1

Certainly not written by a native speaker. Here is another version:

"The steppe near the Sea of Azov (Priazovya) appears to have no bounds... Yet this too has its own peculiar distinguishing marks. One of them springs to sight not far from Moscow-Simferopol Highway. Here, 18 kilometres north of the town of Melitopol in the distance in the green steppe you will see a yellow sandy island . On it there is a grey mound scattered with fantastically heaped boulders. Since ancient times the people have called it the Rocky Mound.

Weather-beaten in the course of millions of years, overgrown with green lichen, these boulders of sandstone, various in form and fantastic in outline, impress the traveller with their silent majesty. This wonder of nature has given rise to many legends."

Answer 2

The sentence structure is interesting, but I don't think it's incorrect, just an old-fashioned style of writing.

Answer 3

I'd say that it's been translated out of another language into English, probably not by a native English speaker. It's not a very good translation.. It just doesn't flow. It's more likely to have been written by a foreigner as the first line would have been written "The steppe near the Sea of Azov is Boundles" And the sentence "One of them attracts your sight" wouldn't be said by a native speaker notr would "Many legend were laid about this wonder of nature". Legends aren't laid. You would be more likely to say that there are many legends about this natural wonder.

Answer 4

Can't be certain, because most of the problems stem from punctuation, which, if you re-typed, you might have just left out for convenience sake.

However, this line:  "On it there is a grey mound with scattered fantastically heaped boulders."  Doesn't sound right.  "...with scattered fantastically heaped boulders." doesn't sound like a sentence as a native english speaker would write it.

Otherwise, pretty good, if the author isn't an english speaker (as I suspect) s/he gets props for a job well done.

Answer 5

It is what I would say dated English. somehow poetic , flowery. But many sentences are in the passive tense, which is not used in modern English too often. I would guess it was composed by an educated non-native English speaker,