Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
8 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Is everyone as confused by this one as I am? As I noticed each new feature my guesses jumped wildly, from Amerindian to the Caucasus to Polynesia. I can’t even make a wild stab in the dark this time.
I completely agree with Jonathan – I would even add Korean to his list. But I think I’ll make my stab in the dark into a Daghestani Caucasian language.
Is this a language of South/Southeast Asia?
It’s spoken in India.
Burushaski?
If this is the UDHR, I think I hear two borrowings from Bengali: lok/log for ‘people’ and shadhin for ‘free/independent’. Otherwise it sounds like a Tibeto-Burman language, with all its initial palatal and velar nasals, simple syllable structure, etc. That all fits with being spoken in India.
But given the huge number of TB lgs spoken in NE India, I’m not sure I can narrow down the options much. I’ll just say Meithei Manipuri given its proximity to the Bangladeshi border?
The language is Ladakhi (ལ་དྭགས་སྐད་), a Tibetic language spoken mainly in the Leh district of Ladakh in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in northern India.
Is everyone as confused by this one as I am? As I noticed each new feature my guesses jumped wildly, from Amerindian to the Caucasus to Polynesia. I can’t even make a wild stab in the dark this time.
I completely agree with Jonathan – I would even add Korean to his list. But I think I’ll make my stab in the dark into a Daghestani Caucasian language.
Is this a language of South/Southeast Asia?
It’s spoken in India.
Burushaski?
If this is the UDHR, I think I hear two borrowings from Bengali: lok/log for ‘people’ and shadhin for ‘free/independent’. Otherwise it sounds like a Tibeto-Burman language, with all its initial palatal and velar nasals, simple syllable structure, etc. That all fits with being spoken in India.
But given the huge number of TB lgs spoken in NE India, I’m not sure I can narrow down the options much. I’ll just say Meithei Manipuri given its proximity to the Bangladeshi border?
The language is Ladakhi (ལ་དྭགས་སྐད་), a Tibetic language spoken mainly in the Leh district of Ladakh in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in northern India.
The recording comes from the GRN.
Damn – while I figured Tibeto-Burman, I was geographically way off!