Omniglot - the blog

Name the language

Simon on 25 Nov 2006

Language and Quiz questions | Comments (14)

14 Responses to “Name the language”

1. DMH on 25 Nov 2006 at 4:57 pm #

   It’s Shanghainese! (Or 上海话…) My first thought upon reading the clue was Shanghainese and when I listened to the clip I had my suspicions confirmed. I really like Shanghainese (and Shanghai!!!) and plan to learn it some day.

2. Simon on 25 Nov 2006 at 6:02 pm #

   You’re right, it is Shanghainese, and comes from Zaunheireiwo Zemen (上海话入门 / An Introduction to Shanghainese)

   It sounds unlike any of the other varieties of Chinese I know.

3. DMH on 25 Nov 2006 at 6:13 pm #

   To me it kinda sounds like Japanese. I think it doesn’t really sound like other Chinese 话s b/c Shanghainese only has high and low tones and not 4 to 9 depending on the 话.

4. d.m.falk on 25 Nov 2006 at 11:01 pm #

   Sounds like a mix of Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, and similar languages- Most notably like Japanese, but isn’t any of the above. Would be fascinating to hear a radio station in this unusual language.:)

   d.m.f.

5. jdotjdot89 on 26 Nov 2006 at 2:16 am #

   Try doing some language identification tests with some other language families. I have zero experience with Asian languages, but I do with others, and I’d love to try your challenges.

6. Matt on 26 Nov 2006 at 4:50 am #

   haha.. i was thinking it was Hungarian… I would have never guessed it to be Shanghainese!

7. Trevor on 26 Nov 2006 at 5:27 am #

   This is the first one that really stumped me. I thought it sounded Slavic and was dumbfounded trying to think of a slavic language without official status spoken mainly in one city.
   AND I even speak Mandarin, so it’s a testament to the differences between Chinese dialects/languages that I was waaay out of the ballpark on this one.

8. Simon on 26 Nov 2006 at 11:02 am #

   d.m.falk - as far as I know there aren’t any radio stations that broadcast in Shanghainese.

   jdotjdot89 - which language families are you familiar with?

9. d.m.falk on 26 Nov 2006 at 11:28 am #

   Many turkic-altaic languages sound slavic, at least to those not familiar with either. Shanghainese, or more properly Wu, may or may not be an altaic language. It has the added similarity to Korean (which is) and Japanese (which officially, no-one’s sure what family of languages it belongs to, if any). It certainly has the Japanese syllabic regularity. It is certainly unique being in a land otherwise surrounded by primarily sino-tibetan languages and dialects!

   d.m.f.

10. Joseph Q on 26 Nov 2006 at 7:52 pm #

    The intonation makes it sound like a muddled korean, and like Trevor I speak a little mandarin, and was amazed at the difference

11. ISPKN on 27 Nov 2006 at 7:36 pm #

    At first I thought it sounded like a mix between Mandarin and Hebrew. I could tell it wasn’t either of course. Just some of the harsh kh sounds remind me of Hebrew.

12. Dave W on 30 Nov 2006 at 2:19 am #

    How weird! It almost sounded like an oscure dialect of Armenian. Really! I live in a city with 50,000+ Armenians and I almost thought I recognized a word here and there. Oh well! :)

13. Linda on 17 Dec 2006 at 7:18 pm #

    It is definitely Shanghainese, Chinese. I am Shanghainese and it is my first language. The guy was asking about the library.

    Chinese has so many different dialects, so you can’t say “this doesn’t sound Chinese,” because it’s like…well…what Chinese? Mandarin? Cantonese? What? Ya know?

14. Mariam on 31 Mar 2008 at 10:57 am #

    Shanghainese! my first language, people consider me amazing when i was spending time in Shanghai, according to them, not many people at my gae can speak the language fluently anymore. (im 17 years old). lol
    my mom’s side family are native Shanghainese, so thats why i know how to speak the language. :)