Language quiz
Here are recordings of the first verse of a famous Christmas carol in four different languages. I’m sure you’ll be able to recognise the carol, but can you work out which languages they are, and which of them is the odd one out?
-
Search
-
Categories
- General
- Language
- Words and phrases
- German
- Welsh
- Irish
- Scottish Gaelic
- Manx
- French
- Esperanto
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- Italian
- Russian
- Chinese
- Japanese
- English
- Scots
- Similes
- Language learning
- Quiz questions
- Czech
- Idioms
- Language exchange
- Pronunciation
- Latin
- Greek
- Endangered languages
- Sign language
- Inuktitut
- Turkish
- Hawaiian
- Language revival
- Luxembourgish
- Arabic
- Maori
- Malay
- Cornish
- Polish
- Sanskrit
- Danish
- Taiwanese
- Korean
- Estonian
- Writing
- Identity
- Travel
- Memory
- Music
- Translation
- Brighton
- Education
- Technology
- Poetry
- Literature
- Evolution
- Typography
- Linguistics
- Etymology
- Norwegian
- Literacy
-
Monthly
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
-
Pages
Dcelan on 17 Nov 2007 at 5:19 pm #
I think two and three are Celtic anyway, (first word in both sounds very like oíche) so I’ll say the odd one out is one, and two and three are Scots Gaelic and Manx respectively.
Miro on 17 Nov 2007 at 5:24 pm #
The first three start with something like “Ticha noc”, which indicates Slavic languages. The first one is Polish “Cicha noc”, second Croatian “Tiha noć”, third one is Czech “Tichá noc”. No idea about the fourth one.
Logan on 17 Nov 2007 at 5:40 pm #
The fourth one is Hungarian - “Csendes éj”.
Voytec on 17 Nov 2007 at 7:45 pm #
I agree with you guys:
1. Polish (that one for sure ;)
2. Croatian
3. Czech
4. Hungarian
The first three are Slavic languages and the last one is Finno-Ugric.
James on 18 Nov 2007 at 1:05 am #
1 Polish (makes me very nostalgic as I started learning this and had planned to live in Poland… my family comes from there. Never happened.
(2) something else Slavic
(3) Czeck
(4) no idea, but it ain´t slavic, hence odd one out
Don´t really know eastern European lanaguages well enough
Polly on 18 Nov 2007 at 2:12 am #
First one is Slavic, but definitely not Russian.
The last one sounded Chinese.
The middle two, no idea.
Talib on 18 Nov 2007 at 7:08 am #
Eh, I thought the first one might be Russian, but I admit I don’t know a ton about Slavic languages. But I am certain the first three are all Slavic, and the last is Hungarian.
yuko on 18 Nov 2007 at 11:51 am #
1. some language spoken in Eastern Europe
2. near India?
3. Scandinavia
4. in Africa?
Thank you for all the beautiful choruses.
Yes, Christmas time is coming up soon!
renato figueiredo on 18 Nov 2007 at 1:39 pm #
Dear Simon, I would like to make a question, diferentilly from this quiz. What could you tell us about Eurish language. I saw some sentences at travellanguage.com. Ar wikipedia there is the information that is an extiguish language. Don’t you have more infos? Thanks
Simon on 18 Nov 2007 at 5:37 pm #
Renato - do you mean this Eurish?
Simon on 18 Nov 2007 at 5:37 pm #
The carol is of course Silent Night, and the languages are:
Language 1 - Polish (Cicha noc)
Language 2 - Croatian (Tiha noć)
Language 3 - Czech (Tichá noc)
Language 4 - Hungarian (Csendes éj)
Hungarian is the odd one out - the other languages are all Slavic.
BG on 19 Nov 2007 at 5:56 am #
That Eurish joke is pretty funny. (I’ve seen it before.) I’m not sure if the Wikipedia article is about this. It is too short to tell if it refers to the joke.