14 thoughts on “Language quiz”

1. Definitely sounds Turkic to me and I’d say Azeri as I can hear ‘Hayastanin’ which I’m guessing is Armenia (which is Hayastan in Armenian itself but the recording isn’t that language) plus the Turkic suffice -in. (There’s also a dead give-away with a name mentioned in the report but that would be cheating.)

2. I was thinking Azeri as well. Loved the rhythm of the speaker.

3. I don’t think it’s Turkic at all because there seems to be a serious lack of Turkic suffixes. I also doubt it is Azeri because the person said “aderbaijani” using what sounds more like a [d] than a [z]. Also, if this were Azeri, or Turkic, in the words “Hayastan’in” and “Aderbaijan’in” the last “i” should more likely be pronounced as a back i (dotless i in both Turkish and Azeri) to follow the rules of vowel harmony.

   No idea what language it is though unless I went and researched what I heard. At first I actually thought it sounded Indian! And then I thought maybe there’s a little Russian influence in the phonology. But after some research now I’m willing to bet it’s Armenian.

4. I’m going to go out of my way and guess Eastern Armenian at that (I hear both aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops, which might have been why I thought I heard an Indian/South Asian language, besides hearing “boloo” twice, hehe). I hope I didn’t just shoot myself in the foot…

5. Nahh, Armenia is “Ermanistan” in Azeri. It has all of the phonemes of a Turkic language but not enough of the endings… Caucasian language of some flavor is my best guess.

6. I heard and Indian or South Asian language at first, but I also caught something like “aderbaijani”. Georgian?

7. Georgian

8. Armenian. I don’t think the name “Hayastan” is used in other languages.

9. First there’s “Hayastani yev Aðerbaijani”. A couple of sentences later there’s “Aðerbaijanin yev Hayastanin”. It has to be Armenian.

10. Armenian. The “hayastani” is the giveaway.

11. I heard the “Hayastan” in there… so, without even recognizing anything else I’m figuring it’s Armenian. This’ll probably be the first one of these things I’ve gotten right on the first try. :p

12. The language is indeed Armenian (Հայերէն) which is spoken mainly in Armenian, and also in Iran, Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

    The recording comes from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

13. Your report is very interesting indeed.
    I invite You to see a great collection of views of borders (riigipiirid) in my Italian-Estonian site http://www.pillandia.blogspot.com
    Helping text in 30 different languages too.
    Best wishes from Italy!

14. I am Armenian and I can tell you this is Armenian (in its Eastern dialect). You can tell just by listening what he says, Hayastan…if this would be any Turkic language he would say Ermenistan