Language quiz

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

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

Comments (10)

DrabkikkerSeptember 23rd, 2012 at 11:14 am

Lol! I know where this fragment comes from. Let’s see if others figure it out.

Trond EngenSeptember 23rd, 2012 at 2:04 pm

My immediate thought was of someone pretending to speak Dutch. Now I’ rather think it’s a Dutch speaker pretending not to. Either way, I take Drabkikker’s loud laugh as support.

ArakunSeptember 23rd, 2012 at 2:24 pm

Sounds like West Frisian.

JasSeptember 23rd, 2012 at 3:28 pm

Maybe it’s Twents from the Netherlands.

P.September 23rd, 2012 at 4:36 pm

Sounds like German spoken with a thick Dutch accent or vice versa. Could it be Limburgish?

DaydreamerSeptember 23rd, 2012 at 7:21 pm

It sounds like a sketch on TV where a guy (the late Rudi Carell?) gives the impression of a German trying to speak Dutch.
Certainly, the most earnest part of the recording is the laughter of the audience.

jimutavahanaSeptember 23rd, 2012 at 8:03 pm

Luxembourgish ?

joe mockSeptember 24th, 2012 at 10:43 am

It’s certainly Dutch of some sort – Flemish?

SimonSeptember 24th, 2012 at 10:48 am

The answer according to the title of the video on YouTube is “Twents en Limburgs Dialect”, which I think means that it’s in Limburgish (Lèmbörgs), a group of East Low Franconian language varieties spoken in the Limburg and Rhineland regions of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

DrabkikkerSeptember 24th, 2012 at 11:41 am

More precisely: it’s somebody from Twente imitating somebody from Limburg.

The fragment is from a show by Herman Finkers, a comedian from the east of the Netherlands, well-known for his dry sense of humour and heavy Low Saxon (“Twents”) accent. In this particular clip, he is comparing his own dialect with that of Limburg (in the south of the country), and proceeds to imitate somebody from that region.

The youtube clip can be found here. According to a commenter, the part where he speaks Limburgish is: Och kiek doe bis d’r [jekke] Beëtes, doe moeëts noch Loeie heesje en roeë hoare han. “Oh look, you are funny Bertus; you should be called Louis and have red hair”, implying that would complete the picture of an idiot.

The fragment also contains some examples of Low Saxon: Hee, moei ‘n lik an de bek hebb’m? “Hey, want a lick in the face?”