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)

Roger BowdenFebruary 17th, 2013 at 7:49 am

An African language I think from the South maybe Zulu or Shona, thats my uneducated guess.

clFebruary 17th, 2013 at 11:48 am

That’s not a song, it’s a recital.

And nah, it can’t be Zulu or Shona because I’d expect clicks.

Christopher MillerFebruary 17th, 2013 at 3:48 pm

No specific ideas at the moment, but I’m hesitating between a southeast Asian or Amerindian language at the moment. I’ll have to listen again more closely to get a better idea.

jonathanFebruary 17th, 2013 at 6:00 pm

Those ‘tz’s make me think it’s an Amerindian language too, from the Southwest of the U.S. (or northern Mexico).

Joe MockFebruary 17th, 2013 at 9:53 pm

Amerindian is what comes to mind – not Navajo but something related to it?

Chris MillerFebruary 17th, 2013 at 10:25 pm

Hm. The [aːˈðãŋ] at the beginning is the only place I hear [ð], which is a clue that this is probably Spanish Adán ‘Adam’. For the rest, I hear stretches of nasal harmony over two syllables or more in the environment of nasal consonants, but blocked by non-nasals. This kind of harmony in Guaraní is one of the first things I learned about in phonology class in the 1980s.

I’m guessing that this is Guaraní.

d.m.falkFebruary 17th, 2013 at 11:20 pm

There are also glottal stops, too… I’ll go with something from the Americas, but I can’t say anything more specific- Perhaps an Athabaskan language, like Hupa, which is local to me– I really can’t say, otherwise.

d.m.f.

ElendilFebruary 18th, 2013 at 11:39 am

It sort of sounds Amazonian Amerindian to me.

SimonFebruary 18th, 2013 at 4:13 pm

I don’t think anyone will get this one – the answer is Cofán (A’ingae), a language isolate spoken in northeast Ecuador and southern Colombia.

The recording comes from the the GRN

TigerfireFebruary 18th, 2013 at 4:15 pm

Mapuche perhaps?