Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Do you know, or can you guess, the language?
If you need a clue, listen to or read the Omniglot News on Radio Omniglot.
It was a friend’s birthday yesterday and I went to a party at her house. There was live music, nice food and drink, I met some interesting people, and I got to speak various languages – mainly Welsh, French and Mandarin Chinese, and also Cantonese and Irish. There was also a quiz with word-based questions and riddles, and questions about things that happened in the year my friend was born. See how you do with these:
1. Fill in the gaps with the same letters in the same order: A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ surgeon was _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ to perform the operation because there was _ _ / _ _ _ _ _.
2. What has a head, a tail, no legs and is brown?
3. What has 6 faces, but does not wear make up, has 21 eyes, but cannot see?
4. Re-arrange the letters, O O U S W T D N E J R, to spell just one word. What is it?
5. Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?
6. How do you spell ‘cow’ in 13 letters? (Hint: it’s not cooooooooooow, as I guessed).
7. Which West African country became independent in February of this year?
8. What was the Intelsat I communications satellite, launched in April of this year, known as?
9. What song did the Rolling Stones release in August of this year?
10. What classic sci-fi show was launched in September of this year in the UK?
Finally, what year was my friend born, and how old is she this year?
These quizzes are normally published every Sunday, and the answers are given the following Saturday here in the comments.
It must be Austronesian, more specifically ‘Malayo-Polynesian’. I think I recognise the pronoun ‘kita’ and the suffix ‘-ku’. Perhaps a language of Indonesia or somewhere there in that region?
I would have to agree with Emanuel. Something tells me it is a Christian religious story that is being read although other than the way it sort of “ unfolds”, I am not sure why I think this.
I think it could be Tausūg (بَهَسَ سُوگ), spoken in the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines and in adjacent areas of Indonesia and Malaysia.
Yes, it is ‘The Wren’ in Tausūg.
The mystery language is indeed Tausūg (Bahasa Sūg / بَهَسَ سُوگ), a Bisayan language spoken in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
How about the other questions?
7. The Republic of the Gambia
8. Intelsat I was known as Early Bird
9. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (released in the UK in August)
10. Thunderbirds
Your friend was born in 1965 and turned 60 this year.
3. a die
6. Aberdeen Angus?
1. N,O,T,A,B,L,E
2. A copper coin (?)
Just got #4! The answer is ‘just one word’ !!
Still no ideas for #5.
6. SEE O DOUBLE YOU
#5 – could the answer be ‘nothing’?
You’ve got all the answers now: 1 NOTABLE, 2. a penny or similar coin, 3. a die/dice, 4. ‘just one word’, 5. nothing, 6. see o double you, 7. Gambia, 8. Early Bird, 9. Satisfaction, 10. Thunderbirds. My friend was indeed born in 1965 and is now 60.
O.k., but were you allowed to use your mobile phones at your friend’s party? I guess not. That’s really tough! I certainly used mine when answering questions 7 to 11 … 🤣
No phones were used to search for answers at the party, and most of us only got a few of them right.