Language quiz
Here’s a recording of part of a song in a mystery language. Do you know or can you guess the language?
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Pages
TJ on 13 Apr 2008 at 5:38 am #
Don’t ask me why I guessed this language, but is it Samoan?
d.m.falk on 13 Apr 2008 at 9:37 am #
Nope, not Samoan, which is related to Hawaiian, a polynesian language with very rigidly-defined syllables…
My giess was either Sami of an eastern European language- Not sure.
d.m.f.
xarxa on 13 Apr 2008 at 12:13 pm #
its got a romance flavour to it… couldnt place it, though
Simon on 13 Apr 2008 at 12:15 pm #
Here’s a clue - it’s spoken in Europe, but isn’t Sami or a Romance language.
Voytec on 13 Apr 2008 at 12:43 pm #
It is a Slavic language, that’s for sure. The ‘da sme’, ‘vi ste’ bits would suggest it’s from the Balkans but I have no idea which language it is. I’ll bet for Bulgarian.
michael on 13 Apr 2008 at 10:00 pm #
Spoken in Europe, you say… Then my guess is Basque. That would explain the Spanish-like sounds + the dental affricate (ts).
But really, songs are awfully hard for language-guessing. Especially when the music is masking the singer’s voice.
m.
Alessandro Delgado on 13 Apr 2008 at 11:47 pm #
I would say Basque. Although I don’t know any Basque, this song sounds like Txoria Txori, which is Basque.
Simon on 14 Apr 2008 at 12:18 pm #
It isn’t Basque or a Slavic language.
Another clue: it’s a member of one of the smaller branches of the Indo-European language family.
xarxa on 14 Apr 2008 at 12:47 pm #
i put my final bet on albanian
Voytec on 14 Apr 2008 at 1:48 pm #
I am quite surprised :) I will keep saying it sounds Slavic to me and therefore, it must to be very close related. There is only one language that could fit this profile and it’s Latvian.
Cakra on 14 Apr 2008 at 3:36 pm #
I agree with Voytec.
Simon on 14 Apr 2008 at 3:46 pm #
Voytec is right - it is indeed Latvian, which is spoken mainly in Latvia. The song is called Cik savādi (How curious/peculiar) and the singer is A.Voitiskis, I think.
The recording comes from YouTube.
(A Different) Simon on 15 Apr 2008 at 7:36 am #
Oh, I actually recognized this one! (The language, that is, not the song.)
Well, my girlfriend is Latvian, although we speak mainly English and Russian - plus a bit of Welsh - at home.
Evita on 08 May 2008 at 7:38 pm #
It is indeed Latvian but the text is hard to understand even for me, a native. The lyrics can be found here: http://dziesmas.lv/index.asp?page=lyrics&ID=4378