9 thoughts on “Language quiz

  1. I don’t know what language this is, but it sounds Native American to me, too. I will offer some crazy guess like Nez Perce or Quileute. (Perhaps Nez Perce is more likely since “tl” is apparently rare in Quileute).

  2. Since Chipewyan is featured this week, I’ll hazard a guess this is what it is. It certainly sounds Athapaskan.

  3. I live in Sitka, Alaska and have been learning Tlingit, the language of the people native to the region (Southeast Alaska). I recognize quite a few words in this recording, so I’m thinking it might be Tlingit. If not, it seems like it’s probably a related language, but I don’t know enough (Tlingit or anything related) to be sure.

  4. The answer is Tlingit (Łingít), a Na-Dene language spoken in parts of Alaska and Canada.

    The recording is of Dr. Walter Soboleff, speaking in the late 1950s or early 1960s about his childhood in Killisnoo, recorded by Constance Naish and Gillian Story of SIL. It was sent in by James Crippen.

    If you have a recording that could be used for the language quiz, please sent it to me at feedback[at]omniglot[dot]com

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