Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
12 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Tibeto-Burman? That narrows it down to about 400 languages and somewhere in SE Asia.
After a couple more listenings, maybe it’s not Asian at all – S. American? Over to the experts…
Hard one this, could easily be Asian ,Austrolasian or from the Americas. I will plump for North American
tones and monosyllables – ??? East Asian
This sounds very very Tibeto-Burman with some Austro-Asiatic and/or Tai-Kadai influence.
It’s definitely not a language from the Karen sub-branch, nor is it a Chin-Mizo-Kuki language. It also does not sound anything like a Tibetan-based language like Ladakhi, Sherpa, Dzongkha etc.
I’d go for something like Lahu, Lisu or Akha spoken in Shan State in Burma and neighbouring Yunnan province in China.
Sounds a little bit like Thai or Cambodian but I would guess that it’s from some place West of those two countries. A minority language from Burma?
This is in Burmese. I happened to need a translator for a client one time .
My first impression was something Polynesian with few consonants and glottal stops. After ten seconds or so it started sounding more tonal and with Chinese-like phonology. So I think about a language from south China, and to guess one particular, let’ say Zhuang.
The answer is Wa (Va), a Palaungic language spoken in Yunan in southwestern China
Oh my…..what a surprise! Wa sounds absolutely nothing like the other Austro-Asiatic languages I’ve come across (i.e. Vietnamese, Khmer and Mon).
One could say this is a good example of an Austro-Asiatic language whose phonology is heavily influenced by the surrounding Tibeto-Burman languages.
Actually, I thought there were similarities between Wa and Khmer. There were some strange sounds and I couldn’t understand a word of it, but it still sounded a lot like Cambodian.
Tibeto-Burman? That narrows it down to about 400 languages and somewhere in SE Asia.
After a couple more listenings, maybe it’s not Asian at all – S. American? Over to the experts…
Hard one this, could easily be Asian ,Austrolasian or from the Americas. I will plump for North American
tones and monosyllables – ??? East Asian
This sounds very very Tibeto-Burman with some Austro-Asiatic and/or Tai-Kadai influence.
It’s definitely not a language from the Karen sub-branch, nor is it a Chin-Mizo-Kuki language. It also does not sound anything like a Tibetan-based language like Ladakhi, Sherpa, Dzongkha etc.
I’d go for something like Lahu, Lisu or Akha spoken in Shan State in Burma and neighbouring Yunnan province in China.
Sounds a little bit like Thai or Cambodian but I would guess that it’s from some place West of those two countries. A minority language from Burma?
This is in Burmese. I happened to need a translator for a client one time .
My first impression was something Polynesian with few consonants and glottal stops. After ten seconds or so it started sounding more tonal and with Chinese-like phonology. So I think about a language from south China, and to guess one particular, let’ say Zhuang.
The answer is Wa (Va), a Palaungic language spoken in Yunan in southwestern China
The recording comes from the GRN.
Oh my…..what a surprise! Wa sounds absolutely nothing like the other Austro-Asiatic languages I’ve come across (i.e. Vietnamese, Khmer and Mon).
One could say this is a good example of an Austro-Asiatic language whose phonology is heavily influenced by the surrounding Tibeto-Burman languages.
Actually, I thought there were similarities between Wa and Khmer. There were some strange sounds and I couldn’t understand a word of it, but it still sounded a lot like Cambodian.
Navajo. In Farmington area.