17 thoughts on “Language quiz”

1. I’m not sure what this language is beyond a Caribbean pidgin, but the man in this audio clip is most certainly drunk and rambling about America.

2. It sounds like a French creole language, but I also recognize some phrases/words which are also used in Suriname (base language Dutch).
   Wild biased guess: Haitian Creole ?
   (biased as I’ve just been editing a Haitian Creole translation someone made for the Remember me project – should be up on the site somewhere this week)

3. Definitely not Haitian Creole – listen to the “r” in “America” (I just got back from Haiti and I speak a bit of it).

   Maybe Papamiento? I honestly haven’t a clue.

4. What about pashto? I think I’ve heard the word allah near the end of the record, so I expect this would be some religious fanatic making his propaganda.

5. Simon Congratulations. This year Omniglot will be 10 years on the web. I wish you a great celebration.
   About this specific quiz I won’t guess in any language.

6. The phonology appears Southeast Asian. Khmer, perhaps?

7. It’s a Malay language, but NOT Malaysian, Indonesian or Tagalog.

   Out of left field, I’m going to make a stab at this and say…. Malagasy, the language of Madagascar?

   d.m.f.

8. It is a Malayo-Polynesian language, but not Malagasy, Malay, Indonesian or Tagalog.

9. Now it is easy Tagalog

10. Cebuano?

11. waray waray?

12. Perhaps it’s Ilocano, which is spoken in the northern Philippines?

13. Another clue: it’s spoken in Indonesia.

14. It doesn’t look like anyone going to guess it, so here’s the answer: Balinese.

15. Ah ! I see. When I heard it, I thought I recognized some phrases as things my grandmother used to say. She grew up in Suriname, which made me think of a Caribean creole language.
    However, in a later phase of her life she lived in Indonesia, mainly on Java, but spend quite some time in Bali too. She must have picked those specific phrases up there I presume.

    Funny how your quiz got me on a memory lane 😉

16. I think it’s Bugis (Makassar), as the man spoke with a stress in ‘s’

    wuku jelowangi sasse’ (no idea……)
    ke limeu? (the fifth?)
    de’ banjar club (in Banjar Club)
    gang Markisa tak SMA (in Passion fruit (markisa) lane, not High
    School)
    neme anak bekideh ( …… ……. boy)
    ke Amerika ( to USA)
    ah, seng mungkin! (Ah, Impossible!)

    I’m just guessing, but I think the man said that he was not convinced that a boy who was not even graduate from High School could go to USA….

    just guessing….

17. balinese?
    really?
    hahahahah………

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