Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
11 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Telugu. Just a guess.
– Nope, definitely not Telugu or a Dravidian language..!
I hear the word ‘school’ many times and something that sounds like “Venice College” near the end — pretty sure about the ‘college’ part. I also hear a lot of ɯ and retroflex consonants. No idea what the language might be, but somewhere with English influence.
My guess would be Wolof.
It sounded a lot like an Australian Aboriginal language, and at first because of the ‘s’ (which indeed is only in ‘school’ here) I would have said Kala Lagaw Ya, the only one with fricatives… But without any other information and without further study yet they all sound exactly alike to me…
All sorts of leads but no conclusion:
– My children heard school and Venice too. Coincidence, I said, but then I relistened and heard College. Relistening once more I think I hear Benny: Benny’s college, and Benny’s school earlier on.
– She seems to be saying Kenya twice initially.
– The background music in the room (convention centre?) is American.
– It’s something about the vowels that make me think she’s influenced by English.
Is it some kind of French creole?
Maybe Some Turkic languge?
I have no idea.
Here’s a clue – this is a Nilotic language.
With that clue there’s not much left to chose from. Think it’s Maasai.
The answer is Dinka (Thuɔŋjäŋ), a Western Nilotic language spoken mainly in southern Sudan.
Telugu. Just a guess.
– Nope, definitely not Telugu or a Dravidian language..!
I hear the word ‘school’ many times and something that sounds like “Venice College” near the end — pretty sure about the ‘college’ part. I also hear a lot of ɯ and retroflex consonants. No idea what the language might be, but somewhere with English influence.
My guess would be Wolof.
It sounded a lot like an Australian Aboriginal language, and at first because of the ‘s’ (which indeed is only in ‘school’ here) I would have said Kala Lagaw Ya, the only one with fricatives… But without any other information and without further study yet they all sound exactly alike to me…
All sorts of leads but no conclusion:
– My children heard school and Venice too. Coincidence, I said, but then I relistened and heard College. Relistening once more I think I hear Benny: Benny’s college, and Benny’s school earlier on.
– She seems to be saying Kenya twice initially.
– The background music in the room (convention centre?) is American.
– It’s something about the vowels that make me think she’s influenced by English.
Is it some kind of French creole?
Maybe Some Turkic languge?
I have no idea.
Here’s a clue – this is a Nilotic language.
With that clue there’s not much left to chose from. Think it’s Maasai.
The answer is Dinka (Thuɔŋjäŋ), a Western Nilotic language spoken mainly in southern Sudan.
The recording comes from the YouTube.