Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
5 thoughts on “Language Quiz”
Knowing somewhat about music, it sounds like a hymn that could have been introduced to Polynesia but the early missionaries so along with that I think it might be a Polynesian language, perhaps Maori? At least it seems to me to be from the south Pacific.
Yes, definitely Polynesian (“ki te” …, “mo te …”, “fakamata” etc.). It also sounds as if containing the phonemes /f/, /s/ and /h/, as well as /l/ rather than /r/, which would point to Tongan. The /s/ is doubtful, though. Also one of the Polynesian “outliers” to the West is a possibility. Or perhaps Niue … I’m curious about this one!
Of course it’s Polynesian because Micronesian has more complex phonemes. From the words that I am able to distinguish, I think it is some Maori song, but I am not quite sure since the Polynesian vocabulary is very common or very similar in all the languages of this family …
In the first couple of words, it seems they sing talanoa faka mata –> talanoa = talk in Tongan, faka = by way of, mata = eye, face. But actually it is talanoa = conversation, story, and fakamatala = explain in Wallisian. Although a different branch (Nuclear Polynesian instead of Tongic), indeed very similar.
The answer is Wallisian (Fakaʻuvea), a Polynesian language spoken mainly on Wallis Island in the Wallis and Futuna Islands.
Knowing somewhat about music, it sounds like a hymn that could have been introduced to Polynesia but the early missionaries so along with that I think it might be a Polynesian language, perhaps Maori? At least it seems to me to be from the south Pacific.
Yes, definitely Polynesian (“ki te” …, “mo te …”, “fakamata” etc.). It also sounds as if containing the phonemes /f/, /s/ and /h/, as well as /l/ rather than /r/, which would point to Tongan. The /s/ is doubtful, though. Also one of the Polynesian “outliers” to the West is a possibility. Or perhaps Niue … I’m curious about this one!
Of course it’s Polynesian because Micronesian has more complex phonemes. From the words that I am able to distinguish, I think it is some Maori song, but I am not quite sure since the Polynesian vocabulary is very common or very similar in all the languages of this family …
In the first couple of words, it seems they sing talanoa faka mata –> talanoa = talk in Tongan, faka = by way of, mata = eye, face. But actually it is talanoa = conversation, story, and fakamatala = explain in Wallisian. Although a different branch (Nuclear Polynesian instead of Tongic), indeed very similar.
The answer is Wallisian (Fakaʻuvea), a Polynesian language spoken mainly on Wallis Island in the Wallis and Futuna Islands.
The recording comes from YouTube: