Can you identify the language and where it’s spoken?
14 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Something African?
I heard “gba gbo” so I’ll risk a guess and say it is spoken around or in Ivory Coast?
Korean or some other Asiatic language?
First impressions: African-type tones. Second, lots of /z/ sounds. Third: what sounds like an approximation of “Guinée” repeated several times. That could simply be something I am mishearing that is actually a part of some common word or even two syllables that just happen to come one after the other in a common word sequence, but I think the “Guinée” hypothesis is worth trying out. So I get the impression this may be a West African language. Needs more listening to…
It sounds Bantu and has a French flavour to it. So I’m guessing a Bantu language from Central or West Africa.
I think Bennie is closest, since “Namibia” is clearly heard, which fits his locale for his guess.
d.m.f.
It’s interesting — and I may well be way off base here — but the rhythm of the spacing of phrases and repetitions are very reminiscent of the “Our Father/Lord’s Prayer”.
I seem to hear a lot of what sound like -kum (second person plural) endings, which may be a clue that this is an Afroasiatic language.
The language definitely seems to have two level tones or an accentual system with spreading high tone accent. I don’t hear any repetition of class prefixes, something that is a dead giveaway for Bantu languages, so I doubt the language comes from the Bantu area. I also hear /nr/ clusters in a couple of places, which generally show up as [nd] in Bantu languages. I’m pretty sure this language is West African, and possibly a Nilo-Saharan language.
Not having much else in the way of clues, I’m going to guess Kanuri.
Is it Ovambo spoken in Namibia
A further unspecified Australian aboriginal language?
Here’s a clue – this is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Nigeria.
hmm…that probably doesn’t help much since there must be around 200 different Niger-Congo languages in Nigeria. But I’m going with the most obvious one –> Yoruba??
I didn’t realise that are so many Niger-Congo languages in Nigeria. This one isn’t Yoruba, and is spoken in southern Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State and Cross River States.
Could it be either Edo or Igbo?
I’m not sure if anyone is going to get this. The answer is Efik (Ibibio-Efik), a Niger-Congo language spoken in southern Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State and Cross River States.
Quite the surprise!
I thought Efik or Ibibio might be the best candidates, but when I listened to some online recordings of the two languages online, they sounded too different from this one for me to think it could be either…
Sometimes, without any other clues, you really can’t tell!
Good one.
Something African?
I heard “gba gbo” so I’ll risk a guess and say it is spoken around or in Ivory Coast?
Korean or some other Asiatic language?
First impressions: African-type tones. Second, lots of /z/ sounds. Third: what sounds like an approximation of “Guinée” repeated several times. That could simply be something I am mishearing that is actually a part of some common word or even two syllables that just happen to come one after the other in a common word sequence, but I think the “Guinée” hypothesis is worth trying out. So I get the impression this may be a West African language. Needs more listening to…
It sounds Bantu and has a French flavour to it. So I’m guessing a Bantu language from Central or West Africa.
I think Bennie is closest, since “Namibia” is clearly heard, which fits his locale for his guess.
d.m.f.
It’s interesting — and I may well be way off base here — but the rhythm of the spacing of phrases and repetitions are very reminiscent of the “Our Father/Lord’s Prayer”.
I seem to hear a lot of what sound like -kum (second person plural) endings, which may be a clue that this is an Afroasiatic language.
The language definitely seems to have two level tones or an accentual system with spreading high tone accent. I don’t hear any repetition of class prefixes, something that is a dead giveaway for Bantu languages, so I doubt the language comes from the Bantu area. I also hear /nr/ clusters in a couple of places, which generally show up as [nd] in Bantu languages. I’m pretty sure this language is West African, and possibly a Nilo-Saharan language.
Not having much else in the way of clues, I’m going to guess Kanuri.
Is it Ovambo spoken in Namibia
A further unspecified Australian aboriginal language?
Here’s a clue – this is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Nigeria.
hmm…that probably doesn’t help much since there must be around 200 different Niger-Congo languages in Nigeria. But I’m going with the most obvious one –> Yoruba??
I didn’t realise that are so many Niger-Congo languages in Nigeria. This one isn’t Yoruba, and is spoken in southern Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State and Cross River States.
Could it be either Edo or Igbo?
I’m not sure if anyone is going to get this. The answer is Efik (Ibibio-Efik), a Niger-Congo language spoken in southern Nigeria in Akwa Ibom State and Cross River States.
The recording comes from the Global Recordings Network.
Quite the surprise!
I thought Efik or Ibibio might be the best candidates, but when I listened to some online recordings of the two languages online, they sounded too different from this one for me to think it could be either…
Sometimes, without any other clues, you really can’t tell!
Good one.