How Many Languages Can You Identify by Sound? Quiz

Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:30 am GMT
I found this interesting quiz. 15 Sound Files. 15 Languages. I got to hear some languages I've never heard before.

http://www.freelang.net/mag/quiz02.html
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:45 pm GMT
I see we have no takers. It makes me wonder about the diversity of Antimoon's posters.
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:39 pm GMT
I've mistaken Irish Gaelic for Urdu. LOL! But I still have 96% so...
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:48 pm GMT
Good for you! There are two more quizzes on that site if anyone is interested, but I think this is the most interesting one.
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:04 pm GMT
The one with world capitals is entertaining, although I got lost in Asia.
namf   Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:20 pm GMT
I got 83%
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:44 pm GMT
On which one?

I got 100% on the sound identification of languages, but 83% on the one without sound. Apparently, I don't know much about African languages (oops!). On the capitals, that was embarrassing. I missed capitals I've visited. I guess I was listening instead of looking at the scenery. That's what I'm going to claim.
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:56 pm GMT
Good claim.
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:11 pm GMT
What do you mean? It's true. I had to guess on some of them. I wasn't sure about Lingala and Tamil, for example.

Don't read the rest of this if you haven't taken the quiz. It's almost a spoiler.

"How I got 100% without having a degree in linguistics"

1. I read Antimoon. Last year I had no idea what vowel harmony was. When it came up here I looked it up and listened to some languages that have this.

2. I guessed based on family. I looked at the choices. I've been studying Slavic languages, so that helped even with languages I have not studied.

3. In two cases I didn't know the language, but it seemed familiar, so I was able to guess based on whether I recognized certain groups of sounds.

4. There are three choices. Two belong to one family, one does not. That made it easy.
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:13 pm GMT
(Disclaimer: Not every question is like number 4. In any case, we have linguists and multilinguals who read this, so it shouldn't be too difficult for some people.)
Guest   Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:26 pm GMT
Hungarian sounds nice.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:40 am GMT
<<What do you mean? It's true.<<

I know, I wasn't trying to be funny.
Guest   Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:08 am GMT
No problem.
JL   Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:40 am GMT
93%