Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
12 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Sounds like a mixture of French and Spanish and if so somewhere in the Pyrenees or Corsica unless its some kind of Occitan related to the Ticino area. A whole bunch of guesses here.
My first thought was a variety of Occitan, but I hear what sounds like ‘oui’ for ‘yes’, which would rule out Occitan, would it not? (Or is the oui/óc distinction not entirely reliable?) The general rhythm of speech sounds quite Spanish to my ear, so I am inclined to say that is from somewhere in SW France, close to Spain. Could it be a variety of Gascon? Béarnais?
Seems to be at least partially influenced by Italian, with some Provençal (Catalan?) lexicon. I’d guess Corsican or Sicilian.
Is this Catalan or Basque? Very interesting. Not Occitan.
Please email me the solved Sprachraetsel. I.G.
It’s awfully similar to Catalan- but isn’t, and I haven’t a clue.
It definitely sounds both Spanish and French to me too, but I’ll be contrarian and suggest Salazarese Basque. According to Wikipedia, the dialect died out before the partial revival of Basque in Navarra, but there are recordings of its last speakers.
Might be Aranés, or Alguerés … it’s catalanish but also with a couple of Italian sounding words.
Sounds like a mixture of French and Spanish and if so somewhere in the Pyrenees or Corsica unless its some kind of Occitan related to the Ticino area. A whole bunch of guesses here.
My first thought was a variety of Occitan, but I hear what sounds like ‘oui’ for ‘yes’, which would rule out Occitan, would it not? (Or is the oui/óc distinction not entirely reliable?) The general rhythm of speech sounds quite Spanish to my ear, so I am inclined to say that is from somewhere in SW France, close to Spain. Could it be a variety of Gascon? Béarnais?
Seems to be at least partially influenced by Italian, with some Provençal (Catalan?) lexicon. I’d guess Corsican or Sicilian.
Is this Catalan or Basque? Very interesting. Not Occitan.
Please email me the solved Sprachraetsel. I.G.
It’s awfully similar to Catalan- but isn’t, and I haven’t a clue.
It definitely sounds both Spanish and French to me too, but I’ll be contrarian and suggest Salazarese Basque. According to Wikipedia, the dialect died out before the partial revival of Basque in Navarra, but there are recordings of its last speakers.
Might be Aranés, or Alguerés … it’s catalanish but also with a couple of Italian sounding words.
Oh, delayed comment arriving, and Ilona Garrett thinks Basque too. Confidence increasing rapidly!
Provencal maybe?
The answer is Béarnese (bearnés, biarnés), a variety of Gason spoken in the department of Pyrénées Atlantiques in the south west of France.
The recording comes from ina.fr.
My first (unaided) correct guess on the language quiz!