Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
9 thoughts on “Language Quiz”
There are two sounds one of which makes me think of Vietnamese and the other that reminds me of a US First Nations language of the Southwest. I’ll leave it up to my linguistic
betters to resolve the mystery! Thanks
I think I’m hearing tonality and length distinctions in the vowels.
I’ve basically got no idea, so I’m going to guess something from the Australian Aboriginal families, because 1) I don’t think we’ve ever had one before, and 2) why not?
I thought Australian when I heard it – couldn’t explain why.
Yeah, I think it is an Australian Aboriginal language too. There are reduplication of many word roots, and these repetitions appears on the derivation system of some Western Australian languages (as the comparative degree “gwabba” = good >> “gwabba gwabba” = better), also in the way the Wiradjuri people form plurals (“wagga” = crow >> “wagga wagga” = crows), and even in many place names as Gumly Gumly, Grong Grong or Warra Warra.
The reason I have questions about Australia is some of the vowels. I don’t think /aj/ or /e/ are particularly common, but they appear here.
The answer is Satawalese, a Micronesian language spoken mainly on Satawal Island in the Federated States of Micronesia.
The recording comes from YouTube:
I’m going to give myself one-quarter point for being geographically close, but from a quick Wikipedia-ing it seems like I’m not even in the right language family. Good one, Simon.
Ack I completely missed this one last week, and I’m especially sad because I love hearing Micronesian languages! I would have never been able to guess which Micronesian language this was (I am no expert on Austronesian at all), but what little I know is that such frequent use of [pw], [mw], and other labiovelarized bilabials is characteristically Micronesian.
There are two sounds one of which makes me think of Vietnamese and the other that reminds me of a US First Nations language of the Southwest. I’ll leave it up to my linguistic
betters to resolve the mystery! Thanks
I think I’m hearing tonality and length distinctions in the vowels.
I’ve basically got no idea, so I’m going to guess something from the Australian Aboriginal families, because 1) I don’t think we’ve ever had one before, and 2) why not?
I thought Australian when I heard it – couldn’t explain why.
Yeah, I think it is an Australian Aboriginal language too. There are reduplication of many word roots, and these repetitions appears on the derivation system of some Western Australian languages (as the comparative degree “gwabba” = good >> “gwabba gwabba” = better), also in the way the Wiradjuri people form plurals (“wagga” = crow >> “wagga wagga” = crows), and even in many place names as Gumly Gumly, Grong Grong or Warra Warra.
The reason I have questions about Australia is some of the vowels. I don’t think /aj/ or /e/ are particularly common, but they appear here.
The answer is Satawalese, a Micronesian language spoken mainly on Satawal Island in the Federated States of Micronesia.
The recording comes from YouTube:
I’m going to give myself one-quarter point for being geographically close, but from a quick Wikipedia-ing it seems like I’m not even in the right language family. Good one, Simon.
Ack I completely missed this one last week, and I’m especially sad because I love hearing Micronesian languages! I would have never been able to guess which Micronesian language this was (I am no expert on Austronesian at all), but what little I know is that such frequent use of [pw], [mw], and other labiovelarized bilabials is characteristically Micronesian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronesian_languages