Language quiz

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

Can you identify the language and where it’s spoken?

January 9th, 2011 in Language, Quiz questions

Comments (18)

AndrewJanuary 9th, 2011 at 1:52 pm

Something Slavic. Beyond that, I have no idea.

Christopher MillerJanuary 9th, 2011 at 2:12 pm

Sounds like Lithuanian with the consonant clusters, rising tone accents, and the -a, -as, -is endings. And do I hear škuola/s, which I guess probably means school, several times?

Will AtholJanuary 9th, 2011 at 7:48 pm

I would say something in the Baltic area. I am not set on Lithuanian, but the only other living language is Latvian, so I don’t know.

I will just say something spoken in the Baltic area, and probably Indo-European.

AndrewJanuary 9th, 2011 at 10:01 pm

Some dialect of Japanese?

penniferJanuary 9th, 2011 at 10:35 pm

I can catch a few Slavic sounding words – odnako, vreme – and some of the structure seems vaguely Slavic, but I can’t hear it well enough to make out more. Something geographically closer to Poland/Polish (but not Polish itself). I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it’s a nearby non-Slavic language though.

RauliJanuary 10th, 2011 at 6:31 am

To my untrained ears, it sounded similar to Spanish. Then again, I think Portuguese sounds a lot like Russian, so it could easily be something from Eastern Europe as well.

TJJanuary 10th, 2011 at 6:53 am

a shot in the dark………Albanian?

SimonJanuary 10th, 2011 at 9:32 am

Here’s a clue – it’s a Turkic language.

joe mockJanuary 10th, 2011 at 9:35 am

It sounds like it should be Indoeuropean but I can’t pick up anything to hang that moniker on, so to speak. Not a clue

fiosachdJanuary 10th, 2011 at 2:32 pm

I think it’s Tuvan (Тыва дыл).

JurčíkJanuary 10th, 2011 at 4:41 pm

No idea, isn’t it Tatar?

Christopher MillerJanuary 10th, 2011 at 4:41 pm

Well, this is getting interestinger and interestinger…

To my ears, it sounds very much like Lithuanian, with distortions that sound to me like the speech of a quite old person.

If it’s Turkic, then it certainly doesn’t sound to me like a typical southwestern or central Asian Turkic language. Which leaves me to guess at either Yakut/Sakha or one of the Volga Turkic languages: Chuvash or Bashkir, perhaps?

fiosachdJanuary 10th, 2011 at 6:00 pm

It’s definitely Sayan Turkic, not, e.g., Sakha. I can’t make out much at all, but it’s something to do with a ‘story’ (тоол) and ‘storytelling’ (тоолда-), though I don’t think she’s actually telling a story in the clip itself.

Chinese TranslatorJanuary 10th, 2011 at 6:39 pm

Is it Croatian??

michael farrisJanuary 10th, 2011 at 6:49 pm

Chuvash? (wild guess)

TJJanuary 11th, 2011 at 4:41 am

Turkic hmmmmmmmmmmm……….. then .. Portuguese :D

bronzJanuary 11th, 2011 at 10:55 am

Sounds somewhat Mongolic to me, so I’d go for something nearer to Mongolia. Tuvan or perhaps Altai? Or less likely Khakhas…

SimonJanuary 11th, 2011 at 11:16 am

The answer is Tuvan (Тыва дыл), a Turkic language spoken in the Republic of Tuva in southern Siberia.

The recording comes from YouTube.