The rules are:
A) No google:)
B) If you get the whole question right, you get a point
C) Feel free to write your answers in the comments
Here are the questions:
1) Name the three largest Indoeuropean language families in Europe
2) Name 5 major Germanic languages
3) Name 5 major Romance languages
4) Name 7 major Slavic languages
5) Name 3 major Ugro-Finnic languages
6) Name 5 modern major Chinese languages. (Bonus point for the entire question if you can write every name in Chinese:)
7) Name the 4 major modern lingua franca languages other than English, Spanish, French and Portuguese
8) Name the second most widely spoken Chinese language after Mandarin
9) Name the four official languages of Switzerland
10) Name 4 major Italian dialects/languages
11) Name the easternmost major Romance language in the European union
12) Name all 9 countries/special regions where Portuguese is the official language (8 countries, one special region)
13) Name two relatively large countries/regions in Africa, where Spanish is the official language
14) Name three countries in Africa, where German was the official language
15) Name the East/Southeast African major lingua franca
16) Name the second most important Indo-European language in South Africa after English.
17) Name 5 non-Indoeuropean languages in the European Union with official European union status.
18) Name 4 Celtic languages in Europe
19) Name two places/regions far from Mongolia, where Mongolic languages have been spoken for a long time. Bonus point for the question if you know the names of these two languages
20) Name the language isolate in the north of Japan
It’ll be too difficult for my brain trying to get all the correct answers..so I’ll not try..instead i’ll be just waiting for someone else capable of doing it:)it’s always a pleasure reading your posts Vlad..I was just thinking..are you currently learning any language?Talk to you soon
ReplyDelete:) Thank you. I'm not learning any language currently, no.
Delete1. Slavic, Germanic, Romantic
ReplyDelete2. German, English, Dutch, Danish, Swedish
3. Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese
4. Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, Belorussian, Macedonian, Slovakian
5. Finnish, Estonian, Latvian
6. Mandarin, Cantonese....?
7. German, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian
8. Cantonese
9. Italian, French, German, English
10.Sicilian....?
11.Romanian
12.Portugal, Brazil....?
13.?
14.Tanzania...?
15.Swahili
16.Afrikaans
17.?
18.Welsh, Irish, Manx, Gaelic
19.Turkey, Kyrgyzstan
20.?
Very good:) You got 8 points.
DeleteAlso I forgot 20 but I remembered after I submitted it (without google's help of course) I believe it is Ainu!
ReplyDelete1. Germanic, Slavic, Romance
ReplyDelete2. English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish
3. Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian
4. Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian, Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian
5. Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian
6. Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Min? (guessing the last one)
7. Russian, Mandarin, Arabic, Swahili
8. Cantonese
9. Italian, German, French, Romansch
10. Neapolitan, Piedmontese, Sicilian, Venetian
11. Romanian
12. Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique ...?
13. ?
14. ?
15. Swahili
16. Afrikaans
17. Maltese, Basque, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian?
18. Irish, Scottish Gaelic?
19. Probably Russia?
20. Ainu
Some of this I remember from a linguistics class I took in uni, but the Africa questions really stumped me!
Very good answers!:) You got 14 points.
Delete1. Германская группа, романская, славянская.
ReplyDelete2. Немецкий, нидерландский, английский, шведский, датский.
3. Испанский, итальянский, французский, португальский, румынский.
4. Русский, украинский, белорусский, болгарский, сербохорватский, польский, чешский.
5. Финский, венгерский, эстонский.
6. Северокитайский (путунхуа, мандаринский), кантонский, тайваньский, ...
7. Русский, суахили, урду, хинди.
8. Кантонский.
9. Французский, немецкий, итальянский, ретороманский.
10. Сицилийский, неаполитанский, венецианский, ...
11. Румынский.
12. Португалия, Бразилия, Кабо-Верде, Гвинея-Бисау, Ангола, Мозамбик, Восточный Тимор, Сан-Томе и Принсипи, Аомынь (Макао).
13. Экваториальная Гвинея, Западная Сахара.
14. Намибия, Кения, Танзания.
15. Суахили.
16. Африкаанс.
17. Финский, венгерский, эстонский, мальтийский, турецкий.
18. Бретонский, ирландский, валлийский, шотландский, мэнский.
19. Калмыкия - калмыцкий язык, (Наверно, где-то в Китае. Не помню, манчжурский - это монгольский язык или нет)
20. Айнский.
Отлично. 15.5 баллов)
Delete1.Germanic, Romance, slavic
ReplyDelete2. German, English, Dutch, Swedish, norwegian
3. Spanish, french, portuguese, italian, romanian
4. Russian, Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Serbian, Belarusian
5. Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian
6. Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese, Hakka (meixian hakka??)
7.Swahili, Arabic, Mandarin, hindi
8.cantonese
9. Rumansh, Italian, German, French
10. Sicilian, Venetian, Napulitano, Sardinian
11. Romanian, Aromanian
12. Portugal, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Madeira, Guniea-Bissau, Macau, Angola, Mosambique...
13.wait what?? Equatorial guinea is not big at all. Fo you mean western sahara and morocco?
14. Namibia, German congo, togo??
15.swahili
16. Afrikaans.
17. Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish, Maltese and Basque.
18. Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton.
19. Well buryat is too close to Mongolia so I can only think of Kalmyk.
20. Ainu.
Very good! You have 16 points.
Delete1) Name the three largest Indoeuropean language families in Europe
ReplyDeleteGermanic, Romance, Slavic
2) Name 5 major Germanic languages
German, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish
3) Name 5 major Romance languages
Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese
4) Name 7 major Slavic languages
Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Polish, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian
5) Name 3 major Ugro-Finnic languages
Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish
6) Name 5 modern major Chinese languages. (Bonus point for the entire question if you can write every name in Chinese:)
Mandarin, Shanghaiese, Wuhanese, Cantonese, Fuwanese
7) Name the 4 major modern lingua franca languages other than English, Spanish, French and Portuguese
German, Russian, Arabic, Chinese
8) Name the second most widely spoken Chinese language after Mandarin
Shanghaiese
9) Name the four official languages of Switzerland
German, Italian, French, Rumantsch
10) Name 4 major Italian dialects/languages
Sicilian, Venetian, Sardinian, Corsican
11) Name the easternmost major Romance language in the European union
Romanian
12) Name all 9 countries/special regions where Portuguese is the official language (8 countries, one special region)
Brazil, Portugal, Principe and Sao, Angola, ?
13) Name two relatively large countries/regions in Africa, where Spanish is the official language
Equatorial Guinea, ?
14) Name three countries in Africa, where German was the official language
Namibia, South Africa, Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe, I think?]
15) Name the East/Southeast African major lingua franca
Swahili
16) Name the second most important Indo-European language in South Africa after English.
"important" is a little confusing here, but Afrikaans [German is also used]
17) Name 5 non-Indoeuropean languages in the European Union with official European union status.
?
18) Name 4 Celtic languages in Europe
Manx, Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh
19) Name two places/regions far from Mongolia, where Mongolic languages have been spoken for a long time. Bonus point for the question if you know the names of these two languages
?
20) Name the language isolate in the north of Japan
Ainu
Very good. You have 12 points.
Delete1) Name the three largest Indoeuropean language families in Europe
ReplyDeleteGermanic, Romance, Slavic
2) Name 5 major Germanic languages
German, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish
3) Name 5 major Romance languages
Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese
4) Name 7 major Slavic languages
Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Polish, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian
5) Name 3 major Ugro-Finnic languages
Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish
6) Name 5 modern major Chinese languages. (Bonus point for the entire question if you can write every name in Chinese:)
Mandarin, Shanghaiese, Wuhanese, Cantonese, Fuwanese
7) Name the 4 major modern lingua franca languages other than English, Spanish, French and Portuguese
German, Russian, Arabic, Chinese
8) Name the second most widely spoken Chinese language after Mandarin
Shanghaiese
9) Name the four official languages of Switzerland
German, Italian, French, Rumantsch
10) Name 4 major Italian dialects/languages
Sicilian, Venetian, Sardinian, Corsican
11) Name the easternmost major Romance language in the European union
Romanian
12) Name all 9 countries/special regions where Portuguese is the official language (8 countries, one special region)
Brazil, Portugal, Principe and Sao, Angola, Galicia, ?
13) Name two relatively large countries/regions in Africa, where Spanish is the official language
Equatorial Guinea, ?
14) Name three countries in Africa, where German was the official language
Namibia, Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe, I think?], Botswana
15) Name the East/Southeast African major lingua franca
Swahili
16) Name the second most important Indo-European language in South Africa after English.
"important" is a little confusing here, but Afrikaans [German is also used]
17) Name 5 non-Indoeuropean languages in the European Union with official European union status.
Basque, ?
18) Name 4 Celtic languages in Europe
Manx, Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh
19) Name two places/regions far from Mongolia, where Mongolic languages have been spoken for a long time. Bonus point for the question if you know the names of these two languages
?
20) Name the language isolate in the north of Japan
Ainu
1. Romance, slavic and Germanic
ReplyDelete2. English, german, Norwegian, Swedish, dutch
3. Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian & French
4. Russian, polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian, Bulgarian
5. Estonian, Hungarian,finnish
6. Mandarin, Cantonese
7. German, mandarin, Russian, Japanese
8. Cantonese
9. Italian, german, French, ?english?
10. -
11. Romanian
12. Portugal and brazil
13. –
14. –
15. French
16. French
17. Estonian, finnish, Hungarian,
18. Welsh, gaelic
19. –
20. -
Totally not looking anywhere. There might also be mistakes in the spelling :D
Very good. You have 6 points:)
Delete1) Germanic, Slawic, Romance
ReplyDelete2) English, German, Swedish, Dutch, Icelandic
3) French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian
4) Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kroatian
5) Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian
6) 普通话，广东话， 客家话， 闽南语，吴语
7) Swahili, Arabic, Persian, Russian
8) Cantonese
9) German, French, Italian, Rumansch
10) Sicilian, Venetian, Friaul maybe
11) Romanian
12) Portugal, Brazil, (guessing:) Mocambique, Angola, Macao, Sao Tomé/Principe
13) West Sahara?
14) Namibia, (guessing:) Tansania, Kamerun
15) Swahili
16) Afrikaans
17) Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian
18) Irish, Welsh, Breton, Manx
19) Nope
20) Ainu
This is an awesome quiz, and I think I'm gonna have to steal it for a holiday activity! :)
ReplyDeleteHere's a trivia question for you, if you're up for it:
Name 3 languages that do not use base 10 or base 20 for their numeral systems.
I'm not sure I know exactly what it means to use a base 10 or 20 counting system, but since I know only two languages that count differently from the rest of the languages I know (French, Danish) and heard there are languages that only have words for 1,2,3 and 4 and anything over 4 is 'many' but don't know what they are, I can't answer the question:)
DeleteAhhh, base is the number that we use as the reference point. So in arithmetic, this is nearly always 10 & multiples of 10. (This is how our decimal system works 0.3 = 3/10, and how the metric system works 1m = 100cm)
DeleteLanguages also do this, think of 一二三四五六七八九十 vs 十一,十二,十三
1-10 are unique while 13 is structured as 10+3, 23 is structured as 2x10+3. The whole system is all based around the number 10, and is referred to linguistically as a decimal system.
10 is the most common base for numeral systems across languages globally, bc humans have 10 fingers. The next most common base is base 20 (bc 20 fingers + toes). And that is what you see in French and Danish. Even when Danish is doing the weird thing where they say "5th halfs times 20," it's still all based around 20, so still common. This is known linguistically as a vigesimal system.
However, languages are many, and cultures think differently. So there are other ways of counting. I know about this bc one of these languages is Cambodian/Khmer. We use a base 5 system (quinary) so we go up to 5, then 6 is rendered as 5+1. (But it's not a pure base 5 system, we actually have a dual base plus this whole thing with nonproductive numbers...but the bones are base 5)
Another language is an indigenous American language, Northern Pame which uses a base 8 system. They count on the knuckles of their fists.
A third language is the Chepang language of Nepal (which is a Tibeto-Burman language, not an Indo-Aryan language like Nepali is). Chepang uses a base 12 system. We're not entirely sure why, but there is speculation that it is to do with counting on each section of your fingers (there's 3 sections per finger, times 4 fingers). I think it's a pretty good speculation bc that's actually the way my father counts still.
Bonus - there are languages that don't use any base structure at all! Oksapmin in Papua New Guinea uses a 27 body part count system, but it's not a 27 base system bc 28 is not rendered as 27+1.
This is probably one of my very favorite trivia facts bc it shows how even very basic concepts can have surprising differences across languages and cultures :)
Very interesting:)
DeleteSome languages look at, what to me seems like, a universal concept in very particular ways.
I remember one lecture in Berlin where the speaker briefly mentioned that there was one language where the speakers look at the past as something that was ahead of you and another language which didn't use left and right but rather cardinal directions when indicating direction or position e.g.: Peter is to the East of Tom and not Peter is to the left of Tom etc.
1. Romance, Germanic, Slavic
ReplyDelete2. German, English, Dutch, Swedish, Danish
3. French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian
4. Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Serbian, Czech and last but not least Slovak :)
5. Hungarian, Finish, Estonian
6. Mandaran, Cantonese, Manchurian. And let's wild guess Yunnanese and Shanghaiese.
7. Arabic, Russian, Mandarin, Hindu-Urdu
8. Cantonese?
9. German, French, Italian, Romanish
10. Neapolitan, Romanesco, Lombardian, Venetian
11. Romanian
12. Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Sao Tomé & Principe. I'm missing one, another little known spot in Africa, probably. The special region is obviously Macau
13. Canary islands (technically part of Africa), Western Sahara
14. Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda
15. Swahili
16. Africans (from Dutch)
17. Answer to q. 5 above + Maltese + Turkish official in Cyprus perhaps? Or else in Bulgaria. I don't believe Spain have made Basque official.
18. Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Breton. Not so long ago there were more Irish speakers than Swedish, Danish or Dutch, it's tragic decline is unlike no other in 19th century Europe.
19. Crimean Tatar in Ukraine and in European Russia (another Golden Horde language)
20. Hokkaidin-ese?
It's been a while since I wrote this article:) Some questions were not that accurate, my apologies for that. I would say you scored 13.5 points.
DeleteHere are my answers:
1) Name the three largest language families in Europe.
Slavic, Germanic, Romance.
2) Name 5 major Germanic languages.
German, English, Swedish, Dutch, Icelandic.
3) Name 5 major Romance languages.
Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian.
4) Name 7 major Slavic languages.
Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Serbocroatian, Slovak, Bulgarian.
5) Name 3 major Ugro-Finnic languages.
Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian.
6) Name 5 modern major Chinese languages. (Bonus points if you can write the names in Chinese:)
Mandarin（漢），Min（閩）， Wu （吳）， Yue （粵）， Hakka （客家）
7) Name the 4 largest lingua franca languages other than English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
Modern Standard Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Swahili
8) Name the second most widely spoken Chinese language after Mandarin.
Min（閩）
9) Name the four official languages of Switzerland
French, German, Italian, Romansh
10) Name 4 major Italian dialects/languages.
Sicilian, Neapolitan, Venetian, Sardinian
11) Name the easternmost major Romance language in the European union.
Romanian
12) Name 9 countries/special regions where Portuguese is the official language (8 countries, one region).
Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome e Principe, Cabo verde, Timor deste, Macau.
13) Name two relatively large countries/regions in Africa, where Spanish is the official language.
Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara
14) Name three countries in Africa, where German was the official language.
Namibia, Tanzania, Cameroon
15) Name the East-Southeast African lingua franca.
Swahili
16) Name the second most important Indo-European language in South Africa.
Afrikaans
17) Name 5 non-Indoeuropean languages in the European Union with official European union status.
Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Euskara, Maltese.
18) Name 4 Celtic languages in Europe.
Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Irish
19) Name two places/regions far from Mongolia, where Mongolic languages have been spoken for a long time.
Herat region, Afghanistan (Moghol), Kalmykia, Russia (Kalmyk)
20) Name the language isolate in the north of Japan.
Ainu
Thanks for the response, Vladimir. I've written to you before, but it's been some time now.
DeleteI have been focusing a lot on language learning lately, when one day you randomly popped into my head. "I wonder what the Slovakian polygcot is up to?" and so I check your YouTube to discover you're absent. Well, at least you're active here :)
I notice the EU is mentioned in a few of your questions. I'm curious then, do you also work as a translator in Brussels, in addition to at home in Slovakia? And is it usually the written, oral communication or a both that you do?
Do you not think Serbian and Croatian will split the way the Czech and Slovak languages did? More closer to home, I know that Scottish Gaelic once used the same written standard as Irish up until 1600 or 1700. Indeed, a Gaelic dialectical continuum once existed from the very south of Ireland all the way to the very north of Scotland, including the isle of Mann. Today because of gaps in the former continuum, you can say that Irish is made of 3 living dialects with Scotland a 4th.
If you ever take to learning a modern Celtic language, do be sure to write about your experience :)
Best regards
Hi Daniel,
Deletethanks for the comment.
I don't post videos on YouTube anymore. My blog and Twitter are the only two places left where I post content and I do it very infrequently.
I work only in Slovakia and sometimes go on business trips abroad, but I mostly work here.
As for Serbian and Croatian, who knows:) I do not know enough about these two languages to judge. Languages seem to me to undergo changes differently now in the era of mass-communication than before it, so who knows.
Best regards,
Vladimir