Do you know or can you guess the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
9 thoughts on “Language Quiz”
Wild-ish guess: Navajo?
Sounds a lot like Haida.
I agree with Drakikker that it sounds like it COULD be Navajo but I don’t hear the nasality in it that I think goes with Navajo. I definitely think it is a language from the US Pacific Northwest/CDN Pacific coast. Tlingit? Haida? Who knows?
I tend to agree with Hank regarding where this language is spoken, and also with André Müller: the staccato and slow way of speaking does indeed remind me of elderly Haida speakers. However, at least for me, the qualitiy of the recording is not good enough to say more than that …
Emanuel,
I’m glad you mentioned the quality of the recording. When I first heard it, I had the same reaction as to what I wrote but I remember thinking that it was hard to hear due to the quality.
To me the pronunciation as well as the speakers voice strongly remind me of the Haida language samples in Encarta Encyclopaedia 1996. I would be only mildly surprised if it’s even the same speaker. 😉
I think it’s Eyak, a member of the Athapaskan-Eyak-Tlingit group and it’s spoken in Alaska.
And David has done it again …
The language is Eyak (dAXunhyuuga’), a Na-Dené language that was spoken in south eastern Alaska in USA. The voice you hear on the recording is that of Chief Marie Smith Jones, the last traditional speaker of Eyak, who died in 2008 aged 89. Efforts are underway to revive this language.
Wild-ish guess: Navajo?
Sounds a lot like Haida.
I agree with Drakikker that it sounds like it COULD be Navajo but I don’t hear the nasality in it that I think goes with Navajo. I definitely think it is a language from the US Pacific Northwest/CDN Pacific coast. Tlingit? Haida? Who knows?
I tend to agree with Hank regarding where this language is spoken, and also with André Müller: the staccato and slow way of speaking does indeed remind me of elderly Haida speakers. However, at least for me, the qualitiy of the recording is not good enough to say more than that …
Emanuel,
I’m glad you mentioned the quality of the recording. When I first heard it, I had the same reaction as to what I wrote but I remember thinking that it was hard to hear due to the quality.
To me the pronunciation as well as the speakers voice strongly remind me of the Haida language samples in Encarta Encyclopaedia 1996. I would be only mildly surprised if it’s even the same speaker. 😉
I think it’s Eyak, a member of the Athapaskan-Eyak-Tlingit group and it’s spoken in Alaska.
And David has done it again …
The language is Eyak (dAXunhyuuga’), a Na-Dené language that was spoken in south eastern Alaska in USA. The voice you hear on the recording is that of Chief Marie Smith Jones, the last traditional speaker of Eyak, who died in 2008 aged 89. Efforts are underway to revive this language.
The recording comes from YouTube