Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
10 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Coming from South-East Asia, I’d have to say this sounds like a language of one of our neighbouring countries, especially in the Indochinese region. Can I hazard a guess, with it being one of the languages spoken in Thailand?
Something southeast Asian?
I’m on the bandwagon: the nasal quality reminds me strongly of Vietnamese, so I’ll say South-East Asian too.
I hear ejectives.
Isn’t it a rare occasion when we all agree on the region where the language is spoken?
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s a language from the Tai-Kadai group (maybe Lü) or the Mon-Khmer family (Mnong?).
How fortunate that I didn’t say anything when there were no comments yet. Because I thought it sounded Native American 😀
Now that I’ve read the comments, it started to sound like Southeast Asian to me too. Kind of similar to Thai. I don’t even understand why it sounded American first.
It sounds sort of like a mix between Thai and Khmer. Maybe a Mon-Khmer language like Palaung or Wa spoken in along the Thai-China-Burma border areas.
No doubt that it’s a Tai or Mon-Khmer language, but none of the major standardized languages (Central Thai, Khmer, Vietnamese).
I was certain it was a Tai language at first, but now I’m thinking it could be Mon-Khmer too. If it’s Mon-Khmer, it’s not close to standard Khmer (I hear tone), and it’s not spoken as far as Vietnam (I hear polysyllabic words, maybe Indic borrowings?). I can’t narrow it down beyond that though.
The answer is Sou/Su’ a Mon-Khmer language spoken in Attapeu Province of Laos.
Coming from South-East Asia, I’d have to say this sounds like a language of one of our neighbouring countries, especially in the Indochinese region. Can I hazard a guess, with it being one of the languages spoken in Thailand?
Something southeast Asian?
I’m on the bandwagon: the nasal quality reminds me strongly of Vietnamese, so I’ll say South-East Asian too.
I hear ejectives.
Isn’t it a rare occasion when we all agree on the region where the language is spoken?
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s a language from the Tai-Kadai group (maybe Lü) or the Mon-Khmer family (Mnong?).
How fortunate that I didn’t say anything when there were no comments yet. Because I thought it sounded Native American 😀
Now that I’ve read the comments, it started to sound like Southeast Asian to me too. Kind of similar to Thai. I don’t even understand why it sounded American first.
It sounds sort of like a mix between Thai and Khmer. Maybe a Mon-Khmer language like Palaung or Wa spoken in along the Thai-China-Burma border areas.
No doubt that it’s a Tai or Mon-Khmer language, but none of the major standardized languages (Central Thai, Khmer, Vietnamese).
I was certain it was a Tai language at first, but now I’m thinking it could be Mon-Khmer too. If it’s Mon-Khmer, it’s not close to standard Khmer (I hear tone), and it’s not spoken as far as Vietnam (I hear polysyllabic words, maybe Indic borrowings?). I can’t narrow it down beyond that though.
The answer is Sou/Su’ a Mon-Khmer language spoken in Attapeu Province of Laos.
The recording comes from the the GRN.
Simon, your “Sou/Su'” link is broken; it’s got an extra ” rel=” in the href.