6 thoughts on “Language quiz”

1. hmmm, first go: there’s Ukranian (I think), Urdu, Gàidhlig and Galego – oh, and one that sounds like Japanese ….

2. No, not Ukranian, but something Slavic.

3. 1. ?
   2. Something of the Slavic branch, e.g. Belarusian, Ukrainian, etc.?
   3. ?
   4. Japanese /akemasite omedetō gozaimasu/.
   5. Pashto or something else of the Iranian branch? I heard something like [sāli nwet pirōz bet], which look like cognates from the Iranian branch for ‘year new victorious be’.
   6. Tamil /puttāṇḍu vāẓttukkaḷ̣/ ‘new.year blessings’.
   7. Urdu /nayā sāl mubārak ho/ ‘new year blessed be’.
   8. Turkish or something very close to it.
   9. ? Sounds Celtic-ish but I can’t make out anything familiar.
   10. Something in Ibero-Romance that’s not Spanish, e.g. Catalan?
   11. ?

4. To complete Sameer’s suggestions :
   1. ?
   2. Sounds Belarusian to me : З новым годам (I don’t catch the last word)
   3. Maybe Uzbek : Yangi yilingiz qutlug’ bo’lsin
   4. OK with Japanese ; あけまして　おめでとう　ございます
   5. I would say Kurdish
   6. OK with Tamil : புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்
   7. OK with Urdu : نيا سال مبارک ہو
   8. Yes, something Turkic
   9. ?
   10. Galego, I think : Un feliz aninovo
   11. ?

5. The languages are:
   1: Mongolian (монгол хэл)
   2:Belrusian (Беларуская мова)
   3: Uzbek (O’zbek tili / Ўзбек тили)
   4: Japanese (日本語)
   5: Kurdish (Soranî)
   6: Tamil (தமிழ்),
   7: Urdu (اردو)
   8: Turkish (Türkçe)
   9: Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig)
   10: Papiamento (Papiamentu)
   11: Laala, a language I’m currently constructing – I didn’t expect anybody to get this one. The phrase is “Nuuka zizo mm” (year arrive good).

   More New Year (and Christmas) greetings.

6. The Laala sentence sounded quite nice. I liked the word “mm”.

   I’m constructing a language of my own as well. It’s called Lait, which literally means ‘speech’. I haven’t actively done anything lately, but it goes around in my mind from time to time. I am going to continue at some point.

   Happy New Year would be “enis asta niþa aticai” [ˈenis ˈɑstɑ ˈniθɑ ˈɑtixɑi] (happy + new + year + to you).