9 thoughts on “Language quiz

  1. I’m at a loss! East/Southeast Asia, I presume, but without any marked sounds or structures, it’s hard to place. I heard dynamic tones (cuts out Austronesian), the only coda consonants I heard were sonorants and [ʔ], I don’t think I heard any consonant clusters (cuts out most of Austroasiatic), front rounded vowels (cuts out most of Sinitic), or back unrounded vowels (cuts out most of Tai-Kadai)… what does that leave me with?

    Taiwanese Hokkien? Even if it’s Sinitic, it largely has the profile I’ve described above. Am I close?

  2. Tibeto-Burman spoken in Myanmar. Karenic. I first thought Pa’O, but now not 100% sure because I can’t understand that many words.

  3. Sounds like Susan had both the right country and family! Given that Tibeto-Burman effectively means Sino-Tibetan-but-not-Chinese, at least. (Nice work, Susan!)

    Given that great clue, I’ll guess Jingpho.

  4. Ah, a different branch. I misunderstood that you meant not Sino-Tibetan, which I found very surprising! This isn’t Jingpho, but not familiar with the other languages enough to make a confident guess. Kadu would be my best guess, but not really sure…

  5. The language is Kanan, a variety of Sak (Luish/Kado), a member of the Sal branch of the Sino-Tibetan language spoken in northern Burma/Myanmar

    The recording comes from the GRN.

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