Language Quiz 4 January 20264 January 2026 By Simon Here’s a recording in a mystery language. http://www.omniglot.com/soundfiles/blog/quiz040126.mp3 Do you know, or can you guess, the language?
I don’t think it’s a tonal language. It sounds like poetry in end rhymes and there are word-initial consonant clusters like /br/ and /bl/ … Going by the ‘timbre of the voice’ this could be from southern China or SE-Asia. Reply
Simon’s clue is “spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia”; I regret that I have no knowledge of that area, but does it help someone else? Reply
Perhaps Cham? I can’t say I know where that’s spoken but I know its spoken somewhere in the SE Asia area, and not confined to national borders. Reply
The mystery language is Mnong (Bu Nong / ឞូន៝ង), a Southern Bahnaric language spoken in Vietnam & Cambodia. Reply
I don’t think it’s a tonal language. It sounds like poetry in end rhymes and there are word-initial consonant clusters like /br/ and /bl/ …
Going by the ‘timbre of the voice’ this could be from southern China or SE-Asia.
Simon’s clue is “spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia”; I regret that I have no knowledge of that area, but does it help someone else?
Perhaps Cham? I can’t say I know where that’s spoken but I know its spoken somewhere in the SE Asia area, and not confined to national borders.
Perhaps Khmer?
Could it be Western Cham?
a Hmong language maybe?
Unlikely. Hmongic languages are most;y tonal.
The mystery language is Mnong (Bu Nong / ឞូន៝ង), a Southern Bahnaric language spoken in Vietnam & Cambodia.