Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
8 thoughts on “Language quiz”
Sounds North Germanic, with the front rounded vowels, velar fricatives, and what I think sounds something like “Johannes here”, “come here”.
But, I don’t recognize it… so I figure it’s a lesser-known language / variety of North Germanic? A Norwegian dialect? Or Faroese?
(It could also be a Goidelic Celtic language given the sounds I identified, but my guess is still North Germanic.)
Sounds like a mixture of German and Danish to me – maybe some dialect along the border?
Some of the phonetic features certainly remind me of North Germanic. But, although I can understand very little of it (and even those words that seem familiar, I cannot be sure about), I am inclined to think it is something closer to English – a variety of Scots. Given the superficial resemblance to North Germanic, my money is on Shetlandic (regarded by some as a separate language from Scots – and by others as a dialect of English). Shetlandic contains many relics of Norn, the N. Germanic language formerly spoken in the islands – as well as perhaps some loans from modern Norwegian. As a variety of Scots, it also contains influences from Gàidhlig.
At about 0:12, I think I hear the words “… the … time that we come here … was … drear …” (come = English came; drear = ‘dreary’, ‘miserable’ [weather]). There are a few phonetic features I recognise from hearing English spoken by Shetlanders – trilled , glottal stops, realisation of RP /ʌ/ as [ʊ].
One feature that is not familiar to me, however, is the apparent pronunciation of as [s] or [z] – Shetlanders more often have [t] and [d] for . This makes me doubt my guess.
^Formatting problem: The last sentence was in reference to the digraph th – my use of angle brackets made it disappear from the text.
…and in the preceding paragraph, it should read “trilled r.
I have listened repeatedly and there are certain sounds that I can’t fit into any Germanic framework. I am beginning to think that the speaker is switching between Scots (or Scottish English) and Scottish Gaelic. After what sounds like “… wis … e’er sae drear …” (= “… was ever so miserable/wet …”, I hear “… driùchd” (= “… rain”). This would rule out Shetland, since Gaelic has never been spoken there. The area where you would most likely hear broad Scots alongside Gaelic would be N.E. Scotland, I think – perhaps the Grampian Highlands.
Of course, I could be 12,000 miles out…
The answer is Focurc, which is apparently a little-known West Germanic language spoken in the Falkirk region of Scotland. It is possibly a constructed language.
So, the jury’s out as to whether or not it is a variety of Scots. If it is, it is certainly the least mutually-intelligible-with-English variety I have heard.
Sounds North Germanic, with the front rounded vowels, velar fricatives, and what I think sounds something like “Johannes here”, “come here”.
But, I don’t recognize it… so I figure it’s a lesser-known language / variety of North Germanic? A Norwegian dialect? Or Faroese?
(It could also be a Goidelic Celtic language given the sounds I identified, but my guess is still North Germanic.)
Sounds like a mixture of German and Danish to me – maybe some dialect along the border?
Some of the phonetic features certainly remind me of North Germanic. But, although I can understand very little of it (and even those words that seem familiar, I cannot be sure about), I am inclined to think it is something closer to English – a variety of Scots. Given the superficial resemblance to North Germanic, my money is on Shetlandic (regarded by some as a separate language from Scots – and by others as a dialect of English). Shetlandic contains many relics of Norn, the N. Germanic language formerly spoken in the islands – as well as perhaps some loans from modern Norwegian. As a variety of Scots, it also contains influences from Gàidhlig.
At about 0:12, I think I hear the words “… the … time that we come here … was … drear …” (come = English came; drear = ‘dreary’, ‘miserable’ [weather]). There are a few phonetic features I recognise from hearing English spoken by Shetlanders – trilled , glottal stops, realisation of RP /ʌ/ as [ʊ].
One feature that is not familiar to me, however, is the apparent pronunciation of as [s] or [z] – Shetlanders more often have [t] and [d] for . This makes me doubt my guess.
^Formatting problem: The last sentence was in reference to the digraph th – my use of angle brackets made it disappear from the text.
…and in the preceding paragraph, it should read “trilled r.
I have listened repeatedly and there are certain sounds that I can’t fit into any Germanic framework. I am beginning to think that the speaker is switching between Scots (or Scottish English) and Scottish Gaelic. After what sounds like “… wis … e’er sae drear …” (= “… was ever so miserable/wet …”, I hear “… driùchd” (= “… rain”). This would rule out Shetland, since Gaelic has never been spoken there. The area where you would most likely hear broad Scots alongside Gaelic would be N.E. Scotland, I think – perhaps the Grampian Highlands.
Of course, I could be 12,000 miles out…
The answer is Focurc, which is apparently a little-known West Germanic language spoken in the Falkirk region of Scotland. It is possibly a constructed language.
There is more information about at:
https://www.reddit.com/r/casualiama/comments/58obkx/i_am_among_the_last_few_hundred_native_speakers/
https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/focurc-newly-documented-language-found-one-scottish-area/
The recording comes from YouTube:
So, the jury’s out as to whether or not it is a variety of Scots. If it is, it is certainly the least mutually-intelligible-with-English variety I have heard.