Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
5 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Wild guess: Sherbro?
Not Sherbro.
This language is spoken in Oceania.
Is it a language of Vanuatu, then, like Shark Bay/Ngen or Lorediakarkar/Nethalp? Those voiceless dental fricatives are pretty pronounced.
For a moment I thought this was Nilotic language, but seeing that it’s a language of Oceania, I need to go back to the drawing board.
The languages of Oceania that I know to have dental fricatives are Yapese, Palauan, Fijian, Drehu, and Iaai. Of these, I know this language is not Yapese, which has all those labialized and velarized stops, and it’s not Palauan or Fijian either, which have laminal stops rather than the notably apical ones here.
So, my guess would be Drehu or Iaai, as I don’t know much about those languages beyond the fact that they have the sounds in question.
The language is Drehu (Deʼu), an Oceanic language spoken on Lifou Island, in New Caledonia.
Wild guess: Sherbro?
Not Sherbro.
This language is spoken in Oceania.
Is it a language of Vanuatu, then, like Shark Bay/Ngen or Lorediakarkar/Nethalp? Those voiceless dental fricatives are pretty pronounced.
For a moment I thought this was Nilotic language, but seeing that it’s a language of Oceania, I need to go back to the drawing board.
The languages of Oceania that I know to have dental fricatives are Yapese, Palauan, Fijian, Drehu, and Iaai. Of these, I know this language is not Yapese, which has all those labialized and velarized stops, and it’s not Palauan or Fijian either, which have laminal stops rather than the notably apical ones here.
So, my guess would be Drehu or Iaai, as I don’t know much about those languages beyond the fact that they have the sounds in question.
The language is Drehu (Deʼu), an Oceanic language spoken on Lifou Island, in New Caledonia.
The recording comes from the GRN.