Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
7 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Something from the Amazon, perhaps? Though it doesn’t quite sound like a Yanomaman language to me…
I’m really stumped! Is it native to North America?
Nice post Simon, I’m really not sure about this one sounds like Indian to me.
Sameer – it is native to North America – to California, specifically.
Hmmm, I’m native to California and I don’t recognize it. ;–}
But I’m going to put a small bet down on Tongva/Gabrileno because that’s the language that had been spoken where I grew up.
Awesome, I’m also native to the Gabrielino/Tongva-speaking region! But sadly that language ceased to be spoken after around 1900, so I don’t think it’s that. (And this doesn’t sound like a speaker of the newly-revived version of Tongva.)
As I listen more and more, I think I might hear some (not-so-extreme) glottalized consonants and uvular consonants. Also, there are a couple examples of an r-like sound at least near the beginning. And as it’s from California, that combination of features narrows things down to a few Northern Californian languages – my guess is it’s one of the Pomo languages of Sonoma? Maybe Kashaya?
The language is Kashaya (Kʼahšá:ya), a Pomoan language spoken in Sonoma County in California.
Something from the Amazon, perhaps? Though it doesn’t quite sound like a Yanomaman language to me…
I’m really stumped! Is it native to North America?
Nice post Simon, I’m really not sure about this one sounds like Indian to me.
Sameer – it is native to North America – to California, specifically.
Hmmm, I’m native to California and I don’t recognize it. ;–}
But I’m going to put a small bet down on Tongva/Gabrileno because that’s the language that had been spoken where I grew up.
Awesome, I’m also native to the Gabrielino/Tongva-speaking region! But sadly that language ceased to be spoken after around 1900, so I don’t think it’s that. (And this doesn’t sound like a speaker of the newly-revived version of Tongva.)
As I listen more and more, I think I might hear some (not-so-extreme) glottalized consonants and uvular consonants. Also, there are a couple examples of an r-like sound at least near the beginning. And as it’s from California, that combination of features narrows things down to a few Northern Californian languages – my guess is it’s one of the Pomo languages of Sonoma? Maybe Kashaya?
The language is Kashaya (Kʼahšá:ya), a Pomoan language spoken in Sonoma County in California.
The recording comes from YouTube.