Spot the Language 25

Rules: Identify the language, that is, say something intelligent about it. Possibilities include where it is spoken, what race or ethnicity the speakers are, whether the language is extinct or extant and what shape the language is in, to what general or specific language families the language belongs, and anything else intelligent you can think of about the language etc. You’re not supposed to look it up; anyone can do that. You’re supposed to do it off the top of your head, ideally.

1. Guarani 2. Gujarati 3. Gurkhali 4. Hausa 5. Herero 6. Hindustani 7. Igbo 8. Ilocano 9. Ingush 10. Isan 11. Javanese 12. Kabiye 13. Kannada 14. Karen 15. Ket 16. Kikongo 17. Kikuyu 18. Kinyarwanda 19. Konkani 20. Kapelle

Please follow and like us:
error3
fb-share-icon20
Tweet 20
fb-share-icon20

7 thoughts on “Spot the Language 25”

  1. 1 Guarani is one of the “official” languages of Paraguay. It is an Amerindian language.

    2 Guharati is spoken in Northern Indian. Presumably Indo-European

    4 Hausa is spoken in Nigeria

    5 Herero is spoken in Namibia.

    11 Javanese is the largest language of Indonesia. It is spoken on Java.

    17 Kikuyu is spoken in Uganda.

    1. All are correct, but Kikuyu is a Bantu language spoken in Kenya, not in Uganda. Looks like it is part of a group of 8 languages spoken in the area.

      Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, yes.

      Herero is a Bantu language spoken in Namibia, yes.

      Hausa is an Afroasiatic Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria and also heavily in Niger.

      Javanese is the largest language in Indonesia, yes! It is a Malayo-Polynesian language. Also spoken on Sulawesi.

      Guarani is actually Paraguayan Guarani, which is one of the official languages of Paraguay. Guarani itself is, like Cree, a macrolanguage. The other members of the macrolanguage are spoken in Brazil and Bolivia also.

      Good job!

  2. 1. Guarani – spoken in Paraguay. The second-largest language in Paraguay after Spanish. I think it might be spoken by natives of Paraguay and might be a member of one of the language families native to South America.

    2. Gujarati – spoken in western India. A member of the Indo-Aryan language grouping of the Indo-European language family. Spoken by 50 or 60 million people maybe?

    9. Ingush – spoken in Ingushetia, a province in southern Russia. A member of the Nakh group of the Northeast Caucasian language family. It is closely related to Chechen, although considered a separate language. It probably spoken by 200,000-300,000 people?

    12. Kabiye – I think this is the name Berbers call their language? If so, then it is spoken in parts of Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and other parts of northwest Africa. I don’t know the language family, but it’s not a Semitic language like Arabic.

    15. Ket – a language spoken in northern Siberia, perhaps a Tungusic language? Probably only spoken by a few hundred people.

    18. Kinyarwanda – a language spoken in Rwanda, by either the Tutis or the Hutus?

    1. Yes, Gujarati has over 60 million speakers and is the official language of Gujarat state.

      Guarani is actually widely spoken all over Paraguay by the largely mestizo population there.

      Your description of Ingush is incredible. It has 400,000 speakers.

      Kabyle is a Berber language spoken in North Africa. It’s Afroasiatic, but not Semitic. It’s in the Berber branch. 2.5-6 million speakers, mostly in Algeria.

      Ket is actually traditionally a language isolate, not Tungusic. It has always defied classification, but recently it has been tied to Amerindian Na-Dene languages in a Yenisien-Dene family. About 1,000 speakers and not in good shape.

      Kinyarwanda is the Bantu language spoken in Rwanda by both Hutus and Tutsis. Around 7 million speakers.

      Good job!

  3. 3. Gurkhali
    Is this the language of the Nepalese Gurkhas?

    Hindustani
    Hindustani? That almost sounds colonial. It makes me think of Urdu and Hindi.

    7. Igbo
    Language spoken in a state in southern Nigeria. A peninsula I believe. I think they tried to attain independence from Nigeria after colonialism but failed.

    16. Kikongo
    I’m going to take a smart ass guess here…this is spoken in the Congo.

Leave a Reply to Robert Lindsay Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)