Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
7 thoughts on “Language Quiz”
I thought I heard “di-ne” in there, which is Navajo. But the rest of it sounded much more South East Asian to me. Can I make a split bet, half on each of them?
Yes Jonathan, however “di-ne” is probably a near-universal sequence of sounds that should form a word in a few thousand languages.
I also thought this sounds SE Asian, or maybe Yunnanese. But there are so many languages in SE Asia and Yunnan…
I can’t be sure if I hear a really strong tone system but I have to agree that it has to be south Asian. The sounds all seem right. Of course I mistook the last quiz for a Portuguese Creole and it turned out to be Amerindian so what do I know?!
I’m pretty sure this is Sinitic, but not Mandarin or Cantonese.
Here’s a clue – it’s not Sinitic, but is in fact in the Tai-Kadai family.
I think it’s the Shan language of the Shan people.
Navajo or Athapascan in general could not be because phonetically they are much more complex, although they aren’t in tones.
David is right – it is Shan (Shan (ၵႂၢမ်းတႆး), a Tai language spoken mainly in northeast Myanmar/Burma, and also in China and Thailand.
I thought I heard “di-ne” in there, which is Navajo. But the rest of it sounded much more South East Asian to me. Can I make a split bet, half on each of them?
Yes Jonathan, however “di-ne” is probably a near-universal sequence of sounds that should form a word in a few thousand languages.
I also thought this sounds SE Asian, or maybe Yunnanese. But there are so many languages in SE Asia and Yunnan…
I can’t be sure if I hear a really strong tone system but I have to agree that it has to be south Asian. The sounds all seem right. Of course I mistook the last quiz for a Portuguese Creole and it turned out to be Amerindian so what do I know?!
I’m pretty sure this is Sinitic, but not Mandarin or Cantonese.
Here’s a clue – it’s not Sinitic, but is in fact in the Tai-Kadai family.
I think it’s the Shan language of the Shan people.
Navajo or Athapascan in general could not be because phonetically they are much more complex, although they aren’t in tones.
David is right – it is Shan (Shan (ၵႂၢမ်းတႆး), a Tai language spoken mainly in northeast Myanmar/Burma, and also in China and Thailand.
The recording comes from YouTube: