Do you know or can you guess the language, and do you know where it’s spoken?
12 thoughts on “Language Quiz”
Something… Northern. Maybe one of the Sami languages, or Chukchi, or Inuit.
Pahang Malay?
Mandarin Chinese?
I don’t think it’s Inuit as there are some sounds I don’t associate with that language. However, you might be right in that it’s a Sami language.
Every sentence sounds to me like it’s from a different family, so I can’t make a good guess.
But it really sounds to me like the speaker is using their “radio voice”, so I will make that guess as to the source of the clip.
Although I do not actually understand or recognise any words in this recording, it sounds to me like one of the Turkic languages of the former Soviet Union (or, perhaps, of the PR of China).
I am thinking of a divergent and lesser known one such as Yakut, Chuvash, Yugur etc. Even if it is not Turkic, I will still go for something from Siberia/Northern Asia. I agree with Jonathan on the “radio voice”, with Aharoni on “northern” and with Hank that it is not Eskimo-Aleut (because of the vowel system).
There seems to be vowel harmony but almost no palatalisation of consonants. The intonation patterns suggest to me that the person also speaks Russian. What bothers me is that I can not recognise any Turkic roots or words in this recording.
This is Selkup, a Samoyedic language from Siberia,Russia.
From the beginning I thought it could be Ket, or another Siberian language.
I’m skeptical of Selkup in light of the minimal palatalization. DSelkup has a series of palatalized consonants.
It is indeed Selkup and the recording can be found on YouTube – The Sound of the Selkup language (Numbers, Greetings & Sample Text).
The language is indeed Selkup (шӧльӄумыт әты), a Samoyedic language spoken along the River Taz in Siberia in northern Russia.
Something… Northern. Maybe one of the Sami languages, or Chukchi, or Inuit.
Pahang Malay?
Mandarin Chinese?
I don’t think it’s Inuit as there are some sounds I don’t associate with that language. However, you might be right in that it’s a Sami language.
Every sentence sounds to me like it’s from a different family, so I can’t make a good guess.
But it really sounds to me like the speaker is using their “radio voice”, so I will make that guess as to the source of the clip.
Although I do not actually understand or recognise any words in this recording, it sounds to me like one of the Turkic languages of the former Soviet Union (or, perhaps, of the PR of China).
I am thinking of a divergent and lesser known one such as Yakut, Chuvash, Yugur etc. Even if it is not Turkic, I will still go for something from Siberia/Northern Asia. I agree with Jonathan on the “radio voice”, with Aharoni on “northern” and with Hank that it is not Eskimo-Aleut (because of the vowel system).
There seems to be vowel harmony but almost no palatalisation of consonants. The intonation patterns suggest to me that the person also speaks Russian. What bothers me is that I can not recognise any Turkic roots or words in this recording.
This is Selkup, a Samoyedic language from Siberia,Russia.
From the beginning I thought it could be Ket, or another Siberian language.
I’m skeptical of Selkup in light of the minimal palatalization. DSelkup has a series of palatalized consonants.
It is indeed Selkup and the recording can be found on YouTube – The Sound of the Selkup language (Numbers, Greetings & Sample Text).
The language is indeed Selkup (шӧльӄумыт әты), a Samoyedic language spoken along the River Taz in Siberia in northern Russia.
The recording comes from YouTube