Language quiz

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

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

Comments (14)

D.JayNovember 27th, 2011 at 2:13 pm

Something Indonesian? Malayan?

clNovember 27th, 2011 at 2:18 pm

Nah, perhaps some African or Native American language. Sounds kinda tonal.

MatthewNovember 27th, 2011 at 2:55 pm

I am guessing a dialect of Chinese, but I have no clue which one. Suzhou or something similar?

MatthewNovember 27th, 2011 at 2:55 pm

Something Wu Chinese.

penniferNovember 28th, 2011 at 5:37 am

I’m guessing something similar or related to Chinese as well. Asian or SE Asian at the very least. Sounds mildly tonal.

ArakunNovember 28th, 2011 at 6:39 am

I’m going to take a wild guess and say Yi. I might just be wishful thinking but I imagine I can hear a [ʙ̝] and [z̞] vowel.

SimonNovember 28th, 2011 at 5:18 pm

Here’s a clue – this language is spoken mainly in China, but isn’t a variety of Chinese, or Yi.

michael farrisNovember 28th, 2011 at 7:03 pm

Xibe or Manchu?

Trond EngenNovember 28th, 2011 at 9:51 pm

Left on my own I wouldn’t have guessed China at all, but coming late I can note that everybody else felt differently and look for a language influenced by Chinese. Don’t I hear uvular stops and a voiced velar or uvular fricative? Salar? Or, since that seems to be spoken completely within the borders of the PRC, Uyghur?

andreNovember 28th, 2011 at 11:48 pm

I didn’t hear anything uvular although some research revealed quite a few languages with those sounds from several language families found in China… but it does sound somewhat influence by Chinese and I could detect that flavour of it. I would suggest it’s a Sino-Tibetan language that is nor Yi nor Sinitic as Simon said.

SimonNovember 29th, 2011 at 9:29 am

The answer is Naxi, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken mainly in southwestern China.

The recording comes from the GRN.

DiegoNovember 29th, 2011 at 7:58 pm

It was pretty clear that it was a asian language… the hard part was actually say which one of them hahaha

praseDecember 2nd, 2011 at 4:45 pm

Tibeto-Burman you say? Strange that nobody though it being some idiot trying to speak French. I mean, it is clear French. I have even made a transcription:

La tragonard, dès me veut tu lu va chat côte dejà. Assez gas, après la moi. Ail est le me neuf, où m’a cosse bout faire l’hache quoi j’a. Aggregat, mouve libera assez gas, a faire l’oiseau main. Pour l’âger, lui je bétain juif mais lois deux. Chineux, j’ai comment m’as mais moi. Jeune, chez là ma quoi, j’ai là ma quoi, dejà, à guerre à me neuve a lu juif car un giselle. J’ai sous l’an agni ne là manger. A gagnir vais tu coût chat la pannera. Cher, prison aigu me l’a mangé.

Doesn’t it make perfect sense?

KJanuary 31st, 2012 at 5:28 am

At first I heard I thought is an Indo-Chinese language like Burmese or Vietnamese. After I heard the “mo ar” & “Fu lao zi” it sounds like Chinese language. Being a Chinese, it sounds like Tibetan or Dzongkha to me.

I like the transcription you made. It is pretty interesting. If it is French, you will hear the “r” sound made by the back of her throat.

Many Asian languages seldom pronounce using the back of the throat. French is not tonal.

Thank you for sharing, Simon. :)