Language quiz

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

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

April 8th, 2012 in Language, Quiz questions

Comments (10)

JonathanApril 8th, 2012 at 5:02 pm

Something tonal…

DaydreamerApril 8th, 2012 at 10:08 pm

Not having the slightest idea which language it actually is, I guess it’s spoken in sub-Saharan, maybe Western, Africa.
Btw, a happy Easter holiday to y’all, especially to you, Simon. Keep on torturing us.

d.m.falkApril 9th, 2012 at 2:07 am

It’s a Ryukyu language- Probably not Okinawan, but one of the other languages in the region.

d.m.f.

Vijay JohnApril 9th, 2012 at 5:01 am

Really? It sounds like maybe it’s some Bantoid language (or at least something African, like Daydreamer said). I don’t hear anything that particularly sounds like Japanese. But I won’t throw out your suggestion yet! :)

Jane GriffithsApril 9th, 2012 at 9:04 am

Okinawa, or a southern Malay island language

SimonApril 9th, 2012 at 9:53 am

Daydreamer is more or less in the right area – it’s spoken in East Africa and is possibly a Nilo-Saharan language.

clApril 9th, 2012 at 4:26 pm

Luo? Dinka? Nubian? Maasai?

jimutavahanaApril 10th, 2012 at 8:19 am

perhaps nuer

SimonApril 10th, 2012 at 3:37 pm

The answer is Ik (Icetot), a Kuliak language, possibly belonging to the Nilo-Saharan language family spoken by about 10,000 people in Uganda.

The recording comes from the GRN.

Vijay JohnApril 10th, 2012 at 11:29 pm

From what Wikipedia says, it seems that the subgrouping of the Kuliak languages is controversial not so much regarding whether they are Nilo-Saharan, but rather regarding their subgrouping *within* Nilo-Saharan. (That is, are they part of the Eastern Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan, or are they an independent branch within Nilo-Saharan?). Granted, Nilo-Saharan itself is a controversial grouping, but this is the only sense in which Ik’s membership within Nilo-Saharan is questionable, AFAICT.