Name the language

Here’s a recording of a song (2.7MB) in a mystery language. Do you know or can you guess which language it is and where it’s spoken?

November 3rd, 2007 in Language, Music, Quiz questions

Comments (19)

AeetlrcreejlNovember 3rd, 2007 at 7:49 pm

Wild guess: Azeri or Arabic.

AeetlrcreejlNovember 3rd, 2007 at 7:53 pm

Definitely something Semitic or Turkic.

ٍAbdul-RahmanNovember 3rd, 2007 at 10:19 pm

It’s not Arabic.

David ThinNovember 3rd, 2007 at 10:33 pm

Nor is Hungarian. :)

DaydreamerNovember 3rd, 2007 at 11:25 pm

Considering the prevailing occurence of the vowel “a” in the lyrics, I guess it’s some Caucasian language. Maybe Abkhaz?

urubuNovember 3rd, 2007 at 11:59 pm

Probably one of the more obscure scions of the Turkic family.

praseNovember 4th, 2007 at 12:21 am

Romanian?

JerryNovember 4th, 2007 at 1:12 am

Could it be Basque?

BGNovember 4th, 2007 at 5:21 am

I don’t think its Indo-European or Basque. Probably Turkic or Caucasian.

PodolskyNovember 4th, 2007 at 5:40 am

One of the Turkic languages of Central Asia.

SimonNovember 4th, 2007 at 9:37 am

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

AeetlrcreejlNovember 4th, 2007 at 6:11 pm

Bashkir?

DaydreamerNovember 4th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

Hmm…
If it was a Turkic language spoken in Central Asia, the music would sound quite differently, wouldn’t it? With the pan-flute pointing to the Balkans, I guess it’s Gagauz.

renato figueiredoNovember 4th, 2007 at 9:35 pm

I heard some Turkmen words. I’ll stay with this Turkic language

Jonathan KatzNovember 5th, 2007 at 2:55 am

How about ordinary Turkish?

SimonNovember 5th, 2007 at 12:17 pm

It doesn’t look like anyone is going to get this one, so here’s the answer: the language is Kazakh, which is spoken in Kazakhstan, Russian and China.

The song is called Asil ajem and comes from YouTube. The singer is called Qarakat and accompanies herself on an instrument called the dombra.

karinNovember 12th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

I was going to say that it sounded turkish – chinese but then you had given away the answer and Kazakhstan is situated inbetween. It was fun guessing. I am happy to have found your blog. I’m from Sweden, I speak Swedish, English, French, Spanish, a little German and a little Italian too. I can understand some phrases in Finnish and of course I understand Norvegian and Danish since I’m Swedish. I am really fond of languages so I enjoyed your blog.

yuni halldenNovember 24th, 2007 at 4:45 pm

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DoodeeFebruary 1st, 2008 at 9:38 pm

Thanks for sharing