10 thoughts on “Language quiz

  1. English
    Japanese
    Thai
    Vietnamese
    Chinese
    Korean
    Bengali
    Hawaiian
    Tagolog
    Filipino
    Marshallese
    Samoan
    Spanish
    Tongan

  2. English
    Japanese
    Lao
    Vietnamese
    Mandarin
    Korean
    Khmer
    Hawaiian
    Tagalog
    Iloko
    Marshallese
    Samoan
    Spanish
    Tongan

  3. English
    Japanese
    Thai
    Vietnamese
    Chinese (Simplified Characters)
    Korean
    Khmer
    Hawai’ian
    Tagalog
    Iloilo
    Marshallese
    Samoan
    Spanish
    Tongan

  4. A question for those doing the quiz: How do you decide which language is which?

    Here’s my list:
    English (my native language)
    Japanese (I recognise the script and can read some of the words)
    Thai (recognise the script)
    Vietnamese (mainly the accents which are pretty unique, otherwise, the way it’s written in monosyllabes and the consonant combinations/positions would give it away)
    Chinese, simplified (recognise the script, recognise some simplified radicals)
    Korean (recognise the script)
    Khmer (recognise the script)
    I would say Hawaiian because of the number of apostrophe-like characters (which would ‘okina if it’s Hawaiian) and the lack of an “f”
    I would guess Tagalog because of the word “mga”. The use of ng and syllables ending in consonants make me think it’s a language from the Indonesia area.
    I would guess Indonesian because it’s similar to the one above.
    I had absolutely no idea about this one.
    This one looks like a Pacific Austronesian language, but I couldn’t say which.
    Spanish (can read some of it)
    Another Pacific Austronesian language.

  5. English, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Lao, Hawaiian, and Spanish I can easily discern. The other languages appear to be Pacific Austronesian ones. What they are, I don’t know.

  6. Top/Left:
    1: English
    2: Japanese
    3: Lao
    4: Vietnamese
    5: Chinese
    6: Korean
    7: Kmer
    8: Hawaiian
    9: Tagalog
    10: Ilocano
    Right:
    11: Marshallese
    12: Tongan
    13: Spanish
    14: Tahitian

    d.m.f.

  7. I agree with D.M.Falk, with a very small correction:
    Kmer > Khmer.
    Script No. 3 is Lao, not Thai, although they are very similar.

  8. Woo hoo! There is only one word in the Korean sample I don’t know, and one unknown verb-ending (but I do know the verb stem it’s applied to). I guess that’s proof of how far I’ve come in just 5.5 months here in Seoul.

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