11 thoughts on “Language quiz

  1. One of the Lapp/Saami languages. I also hear them saying “sámekiela” (or something similar) several times. Given the general Finnish sound of the phonology, I’ll guess this is one of the Finnish Lapp languages with a degree of bilingual convergence. Likely Northern or Inari Saami, I guess.

  2. One of the Sami languages. Considering the people have Finnish names, it’s probably one of the Sami languages spoken in Finland. These are Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami. I know some Skolt Sami, and this doesn’t sound like it. Although the last speaker seems to use the ǩ sound that is found in Skolt. I’m going to guess Inari Sami, because I really can’t tell them apart.

  3. Definitely a saami language spoken by speakers whose pronunciation is influenced by finnish.
    I’ll agree with Rauli and say that it’s either inari saami or skolt saami bacause they say ‘säämi’ and not ‘saami’.

  4. I have the advantage of being able to listen to Sámi news broadcast on Swedish radio and television and I’m pretty sure this is North Sámi (Davvisámegiella). The other Sámi languages have a lot less speakers so I haven’t been able to listen to them that much and thus I can’t be 100 % sure. They do tend to sound quite similar to my ears.

  5. As soon as I heard the recording, it immediately brought me back to the movie The Cuckoo (excellent movie, for those who haven’t seen it, and a great treat for the polyglot/language enthusiast, too). Sounds just like the female character.

    I’m not familiar with how the Sami languages can be distinguished from each other, but I’m guessing North Sami as well, being the one with the most speakers found in all three Scandinavian countries and as far as I know the only one that commonly calls itself just “samegiella.”

  6. I’ll go with some kind of Sami too, for the same reasons already mentioned.

  7. Since I think I know where to find the clip I won’t go and listen to anything, but I’ll say that it sounds North Saami to me. There’s even talk of a Nuortasámi Giella ja Kultursearvi (or some such), i.e. the North Saami Language and Culture Society. And I agree that it’s from the Finnish side.

  8. I thought it sounded like Hungarian, but that’s probably because I’ve heard much more Hungarian than Finnish, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard Saami. So I don’t really disagree with the earlier suggestions.

  9. The answer is Sami, a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia. As this is a Finnish radio station, I think they are speaking some kind of Northern Sami (Sámegiella/Davvisámegiella).

    The recording comes from the YLE Sámi Radio.

  10. It’s mostly Northern Sámi but has a sentence of Skolt Sámi in the very end. It’s about the state of Skolt Sámi teaching in Finland.

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