Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
3 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Hmm, sounds familiar – did we see this language or something closely related to it recently?
Some notes: Loans like “Jesus” and “heaven” derive from English (rather than from Spanish, Portuguese, etc.). Back/central unrounded vowels, as in Mainland SE Asian and Micronesian languages, but none of the sesquisyllables expected for Mainland SE Asia. Lots of bilabials, including fricatives like [ɸ]. Notable stressed syllables marked with high pitch and intensity. No evidence of tonal contrasts. Codas and diphthongs are possible, but unclear if there are any consonant clusters. No obvious reduplicated forms, which makes me question my Micronesian guess.
Still, my best guess for now would be something Micronesian. Let’s say Yapese just to be specific, before I start googling and realize I’m way off 😉
Kiribati?
The answer is Wala (Langalanga), a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in the Solomon Islands.
Hmm, sounds familiar – did we see this language or something closely related to it recently?
Some notes: Loans like “Jesus” and “heaven” derive from English (rather than from Spanish, Portuguese, etc.). Back/central unrounded vowels, as in Mainland SE Asian and Micronesian languages, but none of the sesquisyllables expected for Mainland SE Asia. Lots of bilabials, including fricatives like [ɸ]. Notable stressed syllables marked with high pitch and intensity. No evidence of tonal contrasts. Codas and diphthongs are possible, but unclear if there are any consonant clusters. No obvious reduplicated forms, which makes me question my Micronesian guess.
Still, my best guess for now would be something Micronesian. Let’s say Yapese just to be specific, before I start googling and realize I’m way off 😉
Kiribati?
The answer is Wala (Langalanga), a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in the Solomon Islands.
The recording comes from the GRN.