Language quiz

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

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

The sound quality on the recording isn’t great, but I couldn’t find any better ones in this language.

Comments (9)

EeeSeptember 4th, 2011 at 3:24 pm

Certainly sounds Slavic, although I have to say that in the first seconds where there was a lot of echoing, I thought it could be a tonal Native American language. It sounds like they recorded this in a steel bulkhead.

DaydreamerSeptember 4th, 2011 at 3:26 pm

At the end of the recording, at least, there seems to be a Slavonic touch to this language. But then, I can’t think of a Slavonic language that hasn’t delivered better recordings than that.
Maybe it proves to be a Caucasian language somewhat influenced by Russian.

Petréa MitchellSeptember 4th, 2011 at 4:08 pm

No specific guess on the language, but I agree it’s tonal, it probably is Native American, and “Napa” sounds like a loanword, and that’s in Northern California.

Petréa MitchellSeptember 4th, 2011 at 4:23 pm

Oh, what the heck: I’ll guess Kashaya aka Southwestern Pomo, based on online searching for something that fit the above clues.

Chris MillerSeptember 4th, 2011 at 9:36 pm

Definitely sounds like something from the Caucasus to me. I admit that it could also possibly be something from central Asia, perhaps a Mongol or related language. It doesn’t seem to be North or South American to my ear, though.

GregSeptember 5th, 2011 at 4:15 am

I would guess Megrel or Svan.

SimonSeptember 5th, 2011 at 4:48 pm

The answer is Svan (ლუშნუ ნინ), a South Caucasian language spoken in the north west of Georgia.

The recording comes from the YouTube.

Petréa MitchellSeptember 5th, 2011 at 7:42 pm

Oh well then. I was just getting tired of only being able to offer a guess about the continent. :-)

vuotopiuscuroOctober 15th, 2011 at 11:29 am

φαινόμενoν chris miller