Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
12 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Well the repetition and slow speaking suggests it’s from a language course of some sort, I got that far… I’m fairly sure I heard the alveolar lateral affricate as well 🙂 (Pointing towards Amerindian languages)
hmmm not sure but does it sound like counting Navajo or Heidi?
My guess is Maranao
Sounded Navajo to me, but it could have been Apache.
It seems to be mainly Navajo number words, possibly a telephone number: 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 are in there.
Yes, I also think it is Diné bizaad (Navajo).
The answer is, I don’t know. This clip was sent in by someone who thinks it might be Navajo.
Siiiiimon! No fair! I didn’t have a guess, but was surprised to hear folks thought it was Amerindian.
I worked for one winter with a lot of Navajo and, while I don’t know anything theoretical about the language or how to describe any of the phonemes of Diné bizaad I know what the language sounds like. This sample sounds like Navajo. I have heard it said that Apache is very close to Navajo and differs mainly in the speed in which it is spoken but I can’t swear to that myself. There are some youtube samples of counting in Navajo so Dennis King’s comment can be checked out.
I checked out a video on YouTube and then browsed through Wiktionary and I’m quite sure she says this in Navajo:
Ánéeltʼeʼ and námboo both seem to mean ‘number’. Translated, it would be:
Number 0 9 4 8 9 number 0 9 2 5 2
Fascinating! Considering the pattern, it’s strongly reminiscent of spy numbers stations one occasionally finds on shortwave radio- Usually these are in English, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Chinese, but more obscure languages are not unheard of.
d.m.f.
(longtime shortwave radio listener)
I think d.m.falk’s comment about numbers stations is spot on. The repetitions are identical — I checked in a waveform editor — so this is clearly a series of pre-recorded samples being assembled into a code of some kind. The recording is much clearer than a typical shortwave recording, so I’m not sure if it’s a numbers station per se, but it absolutely has that “feel”.
Well the repetition and slow speaking suggests it’s from a language course of some sort, I got that far… I’m fairly sure I heard the alveolar lateral affricate as well 🙂 (Pointing towards Amerindian languages)
hmmm not sure but does it sound like counting Navajo or Heidi?
My guess is Maranao
Sounded Navajo to me, but it could have been Apache.
It seems to be mainly Navajo number words, possibly a telephone number: 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 are in there.
Yes, I also think it is Diné bizaad (Navajo).
The answer is, I don’t know. This clip was sent in by someone who thinks it might be Navajo.
Siiiiimon! No fair! I didn’t have a guess, but was surprised to hear folks thought it was Amerindian.
I worked for one winter with a lot of Navajo and, while I don’t know anything theoretical about the language or how to describe any of the phonemes of Diné bizaad I know what the language sounds like. This sample sounds like Navajo. I have heard it said that Apache is very close to Navajo and differs mainly in the speed in which it is spoken but I can’t swear to that myself. There are some youtube samples of counting in Navajo so Dennis King’s comment can be checked out.
I checked out a video on YouTube and then browsed through Wiktionary and I’m quite sure she says this in Navajo:
ánéeltʼeʼ ádin náhástʼéí dį́į́ʼ tseebíí náhástʼéí námboo ádin náhástʼéí naaki ashdlaʼ naaki
Ánéeltʼeʼ and námboo both seem to mean ‘number’. Translated, it would be:
Number 0 9 4 8 9 number 0 9 2 5 2
Fascinating! Considering the pattern, it’s strongly reminiscent of spy numbers stations one occasionally finds on shortwave radio- Usually these are in English, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Chinese, but more obscure languages are not unheard of.
d.m.f.
(longtime shortwave radio listener)
I think d.m.falk’s comment about numbers stations is spot on. The repetitions are identical — I checked in a waveform editor — so this is clearly a series of pre-recorded samples being assembled into a code of some kind. The recording is much clearer than a typical shortwave recording, so I’m not sure if it’s a numbers station per se, but it absolutely has that “feel”.