Language quiz

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Do you know or can you guess which language it’s in and where it’s spoken?

Comments (15)

TJNovember 8th, 2009 at 11:11 am

The woman got green eyes :)
(kidding!)

I think it is turkic.

peter j. frankeNovember 8th, 2009 at 11:23 am

Southern Pashto (just based on something like; “Turkish-Afghan relations”)..

xarxaNovember 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pm

sinhala?

bronzNovember 8th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

An Indo-Aryan language other than Hindi/Urdu? It doesn’t sound Hindi enough (not enough “hai” sentence-endings plus not as strong as an “Indian accent”) but I do hear some familiar words common to Indo-Aryan languages, like “apne”, what might be the ergative marker “ne” in “program ne”, “kuchhi”, and what I parse as possibly “pesh kiti hai” (for what sounds like “peshkitiye”).

William AtholNovember 8th, 2009 at 1:55 pm

Baluchi?

Trond EngenNovember 8th, 2009 at 5:28 pm

It’s about a “program” and a “report” and “Pakistan” and “Presidential elections results”", about “fair elections” and “Nazriyya(t)”. But the phonology doesn’t sound all that Indian. I want to say Baluchi because of the Afghan elections and all, but since that’s been said before: Kashmiri?

Christopher MillerNovember 8th, 2009 at 6:07 pm

My guess is Urdu. Definitely sounds like a northwest Indian language with the overall voice quality and intonation of the speaker, as well as the sound of the vowels, the [χ] in Ali Khan, the nasal vowels, and of course the “apne” etc. mentioned by bronz… And “…Ali Khan ki…” where the “ki” would be the possessive marker,and later on, what sounds like a “ke” subordinating conjunction probably borrowed from Persian; Gujarati has it and I would be somewhat surprised if Urdu didn’t as well.

ARNovember 8th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

It definitely has similarity with Hindi/Urdu but it doesn’t sound like it. It has a slight tonal quality which makes me guess Punjabi or something close like Hindko or Dogri.

formikoNovember 9th, 2009 at 3:15 am

I immediately thought Urdu/Hindi because of the words and intonation, but if it’s not Urdu/Hindi it has to be anyone of the Northern Indian languages. I don’t know enough about them to differentiate between Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, etc.

penniferNovember 9th, 2009 at 3:32 am

Gee, it sounds like a Balkan language to me. I’m thinking I’m wrong, by the looks of other guessers.

AAKNovember 9th, 2009 at 4:39 am

I guess Pakistani Punjabi because…

The use of ‘vich’ sounds very Punjabi…
There are a great deal of Persian/Urdu borrowings like
‘Nazriyyat’ (opinion/view?)
and ‘Tarika-kar’ (lit. method of doing/policy
indicating Urdu influence

TJNovember 9th, 2009 at 5:20 am

@pennifer: I got this impression as well. But when I listened to it sounded a bit more like the way Turkish sounded (I was in Istanbul for transit, and the sounds and voices still ringing in my head).

SimonNovember 9th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

I suspect no-one is going to get this language, but many of you are close.

The language is Miripuri which spoken in Mirpur in Uttar Pradesh in India. It is a dialect of the Potwari language, which is closely related to Punjabi.

The recording comes from BBC Asian Network.

TJNovember 10th, 2009 at 6:23 am

…….. was that in Lord of The Rings? :)

sarwaraNovember 20th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

Lol, I am a Punjabi speaker, and it sounded sooo like Punjabi but still not Punjabi, my guess was pahari, I m close enough :P