I hear voiceless lateral affricates, as well as ejectives. It sounds Native American,

I agree with Eli. I will wager a guess and say Blackfoot.

sounds a little like Navajo… maybe something in that branch of the Athabaskan family

It’s definitely not Blackfoot. Blackfoot doesn’t have ejectives for one, and it doesn’t have laterals for another.

I don’t know what language this is, but it sounds Native American to me, too. I will offer some crazy guess like Nez Perce or Quileute. (Perhaps Nez Perce is more likely since “tl” is apparently rare in Quileute).

Since Chipewyan is featured this week, I’ll hazard a guess this is what it is. It certainly sounds Athapaskan.

I live in Sitka, Alaska and have been learning Tlingit, the language of the people native to the region (Southeast Alaska). I recognize quite a few words in this recording, so I’m thinking it might be Tlingit. If not, it seems like it’s probably a related language, but I don’t know enough (Tlingit or anything related) to be sure.

The answer is Tlingit (Łingít), a Na-Dene language spoken in parts of Alaska and Canada.

The recording is of Dr. Walter Soboleff, speaking in the late 1950s or early 1960s about his childhood in Killisnoo, recorded by Constance Naish and Gillian Story of SIL. It was sent in by James Crippen.

If you have a recording that could be used for the language quiz, please sent it to me at feedback[at]omniglot[dot]com

Matt G, I just wanted to say your blog is really cool! Well done!