14 thoughts on “Language quiz

  1. The second one is clearly influenced by South American Spanish (does anyone else use “Pascua” for Christmas?), but I can’t go further than that, unless it’s Mapudingún. Indeed, I don’t know if “Pascua” is used throughout Hispanophone South America, but it’s the standard word in Chile.

    The first one has the sound of Russian but I don’t think it’s Russian.

  2. My (Chilean) wife says that “Feliz Pascua” for Happy Christmas is falling into disuse in Chile as people become more aware that elsewhere Pascua is Easter, as to some extent it always has been in Chile (“Isla de Pascua” refers to Easter, not to Christmas). Nowadays people are increasingly saying “Feliz Navidad”. In answer to my question of what people call Easter she said they don’t particularly call it anything, other than “Domingo de la Semana Santa”. In practice context has always avoided ambiguity: if you say “Feliz Pascua” in December you are obviously referring to Christmas; if you say it in late March you are obviously referring to Easter.

  3.  1. Albanian (Gjuha Shqipe)
    “Gëzuar Krishtlindja.”
     2. Cebuano (Sinugbuanon)
    “Maayong Pasko.”
     3. Nahuatl (Nāhuatlahtōlli)
    “Cualli Netlācatilizpan.”
     4. Hungarian (Magyar Nyelv)
    “Kellemes Karácsonyt.”
     5. Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt)
    “Chúc Giáng Sinh Vui Vẻ.”
     6. Scots (Scots Leid)
    “Blythe Yuil.”
     7. Chinese, Hakka (客家語)
    “聖誕節快樂.”
     8. Estonian (Eesti Keel)
    “Rõõmsaid Jõule.”
     9. Gujarati (ગુજરાતી ભાષા)
    “નાતાલ ની શુભકામનાઓ.”
    10. Cornish (Yeth Kernewek)
    “Nadelik Lowen.”

  4. If . is right that number 2 is Cebuano then that is consistent with my feeling that there is a Spanish influence, though I’m surprised that “Pascua” for Christmas was widespread enough to reach the Philippines. I agree that number 4 sounds like Hungarian, and I’m surprised I didn’t notice that.

  5. With the super brief, super accurate answers that have been showing up in the language quiz, I have to wonder if it is a savant or a machine learning bot that has joined in.

  6. If that second-to-last one is indeed Gujarati, that is certainly a non-native rendition. (I didn’t catch it as a South Asian language at all.) The last word in the phrase is pronounced [subkamnao] or [ʃubʱəkamnao] ‘greetings’ (lit. ‘auspicious wishes’), but I’m hearing something more like [ʃʊbmɑkʰnoʊ], which sort of sounds like ‘auspicious butters’.

  7. The anonymous poster is correct, apart from the first language, which is Gheg Albanian (Gegnisht-Shqyp) – “Gzuar Krisht-lindjê”. The Nahuatl phrase is “Cualli netlācatilizpan īhuān yancuic xihuitl” (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year), as I wasn’t sure which part meant “Merry Christmas”.

    More Christmas (and New Year) Greetings

    By the way, if you know the answers to future quizzes, could you give other people a chance to guess them, before posting. Thanks

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