Language quiz

Here’s a recording in a mystery language.


This entry was posted in Language, Quiz questions.

10 Responses to Language quiz

  1. Jonathan says:

    Something tonal…

  2. Daydreamer says:

    Not having the slightest idea which language it actually is, I guess it’s spoken in sub-Saharan, maybe Western, Africa.
    Btw, a happy Easter holiday to y’all, especially to you, Simon. Keep on torturing us.

  3. d.m.falk says:

    It’s a Ryukyu language- Probably not Okinawan, but one of the other languages in the region.


  4. Vijay John says:

    Really? It sounds like maybe it’s some Bantoid language (or at least something African, like Daydreamer said). I don’t hear anything that particularly sounds like Japanese. But I won’t throw out your suggestion yet! :)

  5. Okinawa, or a southern Malay island language

  6. Simon says:

    Daydreamer is more or less in the right area – it’s spoken in East Africa and is possibly a Nilo-Saharan language.

  7. cl says:

    Luo? Dinka? Nubian? Maasai?

  8. jimutavahana says:

    perhaps nuer

  9. Simon says:

    The answer is Ik (Icetot), a Kuliak language, possibly belonging to the Nilo-Saharan language family spoken by about 10,000 people in Uganda.

    The recording comes from the GRN.

  10. Vijay John says:

    From what Wikipedia says, it seems that the subgrouping of the Kuliak languages is controversial not so much regarding whether they are Nilo-Saharan, but rather regarding their subgrouping *within* Nilo-Saharan. (That is, are they part of the Eastern Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan, or are they an independent branch within Nilo-Saharan?). Granted, Nilo-Saharan itself is a controversial grouping, but this is the only sense in which Ik’s membership within Nilo-Saharan is questionable, AFAICT.