Language quiz

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.

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

Comments (13)

EeeMarch 3rd, 2013 at 6:49 am

I’m thinking this is a Salishan language.

Joe MockMarch 3rd, 2013 at 9:43 am

Sounds South African to me, Bushman or something along those lines.

Christopher MillerMarch 3rd, 2013 at 11:50 am

Well, we’re somewhere in Pacific Northwest North America (ejectives, lateral affricates and all), and with the apparent lack of tones I assume this is not an Athapaskan language… So a Salishan language is a pretty good guess. I’ll have to listen again to see if there’s anything else I hear.

EeeMarch 3rd, 2013 at 1:47 pm

I’ll take a wild guess that it’s Lushootseed, aka Skagit/Nisqually.

Petréa MitchellMarch 3rd, 2013 at 6:27 pm

Pacific Northwest is what I’m thinking too.

Petréa MitchellMarch 3rd, 2013 at 6:32 pm

Just to be different, I’ll make a wild guess that it’s a Wakashan language.

Chris MillerMarch 3rd, 2013 at 8:27 pm

Well, since I just don’t know enough to distinguish one language in the region from another, I’ll just toss out Bella Coola/Nuxalk as a guess, since it sounds like what I remember transcriptions looking like.

With the profusion of languages in the same small region, I’m as likely as not to be completely off, but what the hey.

praseMarch 3rd, 2013 at 9:17 pm

I hear clicks, which would imply a south African language. But this is incompatible with Chris Miller who is usually right in his guesses. That’s confusing.

Trond EngenMarch 3rd, 2013 at 9:26 pm

What prase said. I guess I can’t have grasped the difference between clicks and ejectives.

andrebMarch 3rd, 2013 at 10:31 pm

I’ll guess Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish).

Chris SunditaMarch 4th, 2013 at 3:57 am

Hmmm… Haida?.

ElendilMarch 4th, 2013 at 10:30 am

Sounds very Pacific North-West to me. I’d go for Tlingit or Salish.

SimonMarch 4th, 2013 at 3:09 pm

The answer is Nuu-Chah-Nulth (Nuučaanuł / T’aat’aaqsapa), a.k.a. Nootka, a southern Wakashan language spoken in British Columbia in Canada.

The recording comes from the the GRN (Parable of the Sower)

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