Here’s a recording in a mystery language.
Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
By the way, this was recorded by a non-native speaker of this language. I couldn’t find any recordings of native speakers, probably because there are so few.
Some form of Japanese. I don’t think it’s Okinawan. Other than that, can’t say anything more specific.
Going from Rauli’s suggestion: Ainu?
Since Ainu is on the point of extinction, seems like a good bet.
Another vote for Ainu, location is more difficult. Sakhalin is too obvious, since it’s a non native speaker I’ll go with Tokyo.
I too was thinking Ainu, specifically Hokkaidō Ainu.
Very Japanese sounding with a difference, so I think a dialect or related language from one of the islands of Japan. Okinawan maybe but in my view too Japanese related to be Ainu.
What with all the Ainu comments, I decided to see what there was on YouTube to see if I might get an ear for Ainu to tell it apart from a Ryukyuan language. Lo and behond, first hit:
Reading the story from “Ainu Times No. 46.”.
You can even hear the Japanese loanword ‘terebi’ (television).
I can’t say Ainu it all along, unfortunately…
The answer is indeed Ainu (アイヌ イタク / Aynu itak), a language isolate spoken in Hokkaido in Japan.
The recording comes from YourTube
Chris, he even says “terebi rimokon” (television remote control). That was my main reason for thinking it’s a form of Japanese. I couldn’t make myself think another language would borrow that from Japanese. I also thought I heard “onna” (woman) and other very Japanese sounding words. But that’s probably just because of close contacts. And the fact that the speaker was a Japanese person.
Looking at the Japanese transcript in the video, the “onna” had nothing to do with women.
“he even says “terebi rimokon” (television remote control). That was my main reason for thinking it’s a form of Japanese.”
@Chris: Those are ultimately loan words from English (Ironic, considering many of them are manufactured in Japan or by Japanese companies), albeit through the route of Japanese. It is logical that a minority language should borrow words from the dominant language for concepts that have come from the dominant culture.
That was meant to be @Rauli.