Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
6 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Azeri? Definitely a Turkic language, and there’s a lot here that sounds like Anatolian Turkish. There’s also the [æ] all over the place, which is a typically Azeri sound — the one spelled with a “schwa” (rotated e) letter. Of course, there may well be some other Turkic language that uses the same sound…
The very Persian-sounding intonation and rhythm of the voice, even the overall quality of the vowels, makes me suspect this is a bilingual Iranian speaker, which is another clue that this might be Azeri, but from the Iranian side of the border, and not Azerbaijan itself. Not that I’ve ever heard any Azeri before, from Azerbaijan itself or elsewhere, so I don’t know how it sounds in general: this is just a hunch.
Turkic with nasal Persic sounds and Arabic Sounds only word I recognize is biz and perhaps veranda maybe this is Turkmen?. Then more likely it is something else.
I too have a suspicion, like our friend Christopher, that this is Azeri, due to its overall resemblance to standard Turkish.
I also thought it sounds Turkic, although I may be wrong. But since I heard [ð], I’ll say it’s Bashkir.
The answer is Azerbaijani (آذربايجانجا ديلي / Azərbaycan dili), specifically North Azerbaijani, a Turkic language spoken in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and in Dagestan in Russia.
I recognised this as a Turkic language with some Arabic phonetic influence, and arrived at Azeri as my 3rd guess. I had to hold my tongue, though, as I searched for ‘Azeri news’ on YouTube and happened to find the very same recording – the man’s voice was a bit of a giveaway.
Azeri? Definitely a Turkic language, and there’s a lot here that sounds like Anatolian Turkish. There’s also the [æ] all over the place, which is a typically Azeri sound — the one spelled with a “schwa” (rotated e) letter. Of course, there may well be some other Turkic language that uses the same sound…
The very Persian-sounding intonation and rhythm of the voice, even the overall quality of the vowels, makes me suspect this is a bilingual Iranian speaker, which is another clue that this might be Azeri, but from the Iranian side of the border, and not Azerbaijan itself. Not that I’ve ever heard any Azeri before, from Azerbaijan itself or elsewhere, so I don’t know how it sounds in general: this is just a hunch.
Turkic with nasal Persic sounds and Arabic Sounds only word I recognize is biz and perhaps veranda maybe this is Turkmen?. Then more likely it is something else.
I too have a suspicion, like our friend Christopher, that this is Azeri, due to its overall resemblance to standard Turkish.
I also thought it sounds Turkic, although I may be wrong. But since I heard [ð], I’ll say it’s Bashkir.
The answer is Azerbaijani (آذربايجانجا ديلي / Azərbaycan dili), specifically North Azerbaijani, a Turkic language spoken in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and in Dagestan in Russia.
The recording comes from the GRN (picture 24)
I recognised this as a Turkic language with some Arabic phonetic influence, and arrived at Azeri as my 3rd guess. I had to hold my tongue, though, as I searched for ‘Azeri news’ on YouTube and happened to find the very same recording – the man’s voice was a bit of a giveaway.