Mystery Languages! LangFocus

[00:00:00]Hey, mystery languages. Mystery let's all. As you know, I enjoy occasionally to react to Lang focus, but obviously he is the majority of his content is members only. And so I think I'm going to run out of recent videos, but there is this video from 10 months ago that sounds quite fun and it's part of a series. So I thought, hey, how about we watch this episode 8 see if we find it fun interact with it. We're going to recognize the languages and then embarrass myself and then um if you like it, then you can go watch the rest of his videos if they are, you know, public if they are public. So without further ado, what are the mystery languages? Let's go.

[00:00:39]>> Episode of mystery languages, the first one in 7 years. The way it works is that I'll play you an audio sample of a language and then I'll show you some written sentences in that language and you can guess what language it is. Or if you can't guess that, maybe you can guess the language family or what region it's spoken in or anything >> What planet, sister or system?

[00:00:57]>> like that. But if you can't guess, that's fine. I'll reveal the language and tell you a little bit about it.

[00:01:02]Okay, let's hear the first language.

[00:01:03]Please listen.

[00:01:28]Now let's >> You know what's crazy? So I don't know what language it is, but it sounds Slavic to me. So um what is it? Some form of Is it related to Russian? Is it in that area? Ukrainian like that? Is it in that area?

[00:01:42]Or am I completely out of it? I will see.

[00:01:44]>> some examples in writing.

[00:01:48]>> It's not Russian cuz it's not using Cyrillic.

[00:01:52]I'm curious if this got to be something in the east of Europe.

[00:02:03]>> Okay, what language do you think it is?

[00:02:05]>> That's what I thought.

[00:02:07]Let's say if I'm wrong.

[00:02:11]>> The language is Czech.

[00:02:12]>> Goodness gracious. Really?

[00:02:15]But I did not recognize it at all. I mean, Czech we do remember that Czechia is not um Eastern Europe, it's Central Europe.

[00:02:24]I wonder why. I mean, then again, the only word I know in Czech is zmrzlina for ice cream. I don't know anything else.

[00:02:31]I was wrong.

[00:02:33]>> It's the official language of Czechia, also known as the Czech Republic, where it's spoken by around 10.7 million native speakers and is spoken by around 13 million people in total. Czech is a Slavic language, specifically a >> Okay, right. So, at least I got the language family right, okay? So, give me that give me that. Don't be my pets.

[00:02:52]>> West Slavic language. One clue that it's a Slavic language is its abundance of palatal alveolar hissing sounds, sh, zh, ch, and j, as well as palatalized consonants.

[00:03:06]True. There are also a lot of consonant clusters.

[00:03:10]True. A hint that it's Czech and not another Slavic language is the stress of the words. In Czech, words are stressed on the first syllable. I believe this is also true for Slovak, but not for Russian, Polish, or others. When you see it in writing, some clues it might be Czech are that it's written in a Latin-based alphabet, which eliminates several possibilities like Russian, >> Yeah, that's why I gave up on it. That was pretty cool, pretty cool.

[00:03:32]>> Ukrainian, or Bulgarian, and the abundance of háček, the little hook diacritic that's part of many consonant letters.

[00:03:39]This vowel, like an e with a háček on top, shows that the preceding consonant is palatalized. Slovak and Polish do this by placing i between the consonant and the vowel. Another thing you'll see in Czech is a long >> Very cool, next one.

[00:03:52]>> Okay, let's try to guess the next language. Please listen.

[00:03:55]>> Now then, I thought for my little contribution I'd talk about my native city, so Sheffield is South Yorkshire.

[00:04:02]And I reckon most well known thing about Sheffield is other than outside monkeys of course, is it's main historical industry, so steel making and as an extension of that, cutlery.

[00:04:15]Um and that's quite a bit different to other cities it was straw dealing, where weaving's been main historical industry.

[00:04:23]>> Okay, now let's >> Bro, that sounds like English.

[00:04:26]What are we talking about? I could actually understand some of it, so unless like he's being cheeky and it's some kind of like like regional varieties, a little obscure perhaps.

[00:04:38]I watched him say it was Korean.

[00:04:43]>> Do you want some written examples?

[00:04:45]>> Just so I want me to get this trip to file.

[00:04:48]She's burning out somewhere but shut me up told me where.

[00:04:50]>> Is it old English you muppet?

[00:04:53]>> There ain't no people around here so I've no need to worry to send.

[00:04:57]>> So, what language do you think it is?

[00:05:02]>> I'm going to flip the table if it's Korean.

[00:05:05]>> The language is English.

[00:05:07]>> I got Okay, I got it guys. You did not get me you muppet.

[00:05:10]>> But obviously not standard English. It's the traditional dialect of West Riding Yorkshire, specifically the city of Sheffield.

[00:05:16]>> Doesn't actually surprise me. I thought it was going to be some something like a yeah, a different regional variety, but interestingly enough it does this area does have some conservative elements in their language speech. For instance, I mean I have heard people from Yorkshire, maybe not West Riding, I'm not sure, but there are some people that like instead of saying Facebook, they will say Facebook like it's a air, which is a older sound, believe it or not, that some people did do in like the late medieval period.

[00:05:45]>> The West Riding Yorkshire dialect developed from Old English just like standard >> I got the second one, guys. And the first one I said that that language family. I'm not doing too bad.

[00:05:53]>> And in English did, but from a different dialect of it, the Northumbrian dialect, just like other northern dialects did, as well as Scots. Standard English mainly developed from the East Midlands dialect. And this was after the dialects had diverged a fair bit during the Middle English period. This dialect has some fascinating differences from standard English. One thing is T forms of the second person pronouns, meaning you, thou, which developed from thou, thee, or dee as the object form, and thy as the possessive form.

[00:06:22]>> Thy, man, they really make it I did say it sounded Old English next >> means like that. Okay, on to the next language. Please listen.

[00:06:29]>> Yeah.

[00:06:53]>> Now, let's see >> I'm going to say so, of course it's Southeast Asian, and but he did say Indonesia a few times, so I imagine it's the language spoken in Indonesia.

[00:07:00]>> Some examples in writing.

[00:07:03]>> And it's written with the Latin alphabet, yeah.

[00:07:17]>> Okay, what language do you think it is?

[00:07:20]>> I'm having a good time.

[00:07:22]>> The language is Javanese. No, not Japanese, Javanese. Specifically the dialect of Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city.

[00:07:30]>> Okay, next language.

[00:07:31]>> Now, on to the next language. Please listen.

[00:07:50]>> Now here are some written examples.

[00:07:52]>> I'm not going to read written examples for this one because it sounds kind of Middle Eastern to me.

[00:07:57]But um nothing that I've ever studied.

[00:07:59]So it's kind of difficult to um figure it out.

[00:08:09]>> What type though?

[00:08:12]>> Okay, what language do you think it is?

[00:08:17]The language is Gilaki. Gilaki is spoken in part of northern Iran on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. It's a member of the Caspian sub-branch of the northwestern Iranian language.

[00:08:27]>> Bro, I didn't even know this one existed. Man, he's going hardcore.

[00:08:31]>> Just closely related to neighboring Mazandarani. Persian or Farsi, the official language of Iran, is a southwestern Iranian language. So they're related and not really distantly related, but they're different enough that other non-Caspian Persian speakers probably have some trouble understanding it.

[00:08:47]>> Fascinating. Next.

[00:08:49]>> Okay, on to the next language. Please listen.

[00:09:17]Now some written samples.

[00:09:19]>> Bro, this is difficult because it's Romance, but it's it's going to be some sub-regional section. Like it's not one of the main. And so that makes it kind of difficult cuz I understood a little bit the end, which automatically means it's Romance. Cuz otherwise it's like if I haven't studied and I understand a little bit of it, you could it's the language family, right?

[00:09:38]But what would it be? Is it something related to Portuguese in a way but Portugal Portuguese and or Catalan related to those? Maybe not.

[00:09:55]Mira per la finestra. Is it a northern Italian one but like a >> So, what language do you think it is?

[00:10:07]The language is Catalan.

[00:10:09]>> So, it is Catalan. Yeah, interesting because I thought I thought so. And Catalan is quite different from Castilian Spanish.

[00:10:17]And uh the reason why at the end is because la finestra is Italian. So, in fact, maybe Catalan is closer to Italian that I thought that I thought it would be.

[00:10:26]>> Or a native pronunciation.

[00:10:28]Catalan is a Romance language spoken in parts of Spain, mainly in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia, where it's often called Valencian and considered a different language by some.

[00:10:39]It's also spoken in Andorra, the town of Alghero in Italy, and a small >> You see what I mean now? Let me see.

[00:10:44]Town of Alghero in Italy. Where is that?

[00:10:47]Where is that, you muppet?

[00:10:50]Town of Alghero, Italy. It's in Sardinia. It's in Sardinia. Fascinating.

[00:10:57]Map. There we go. Oh, the north the north of Sardinia, see?

[00:11:01]How interesting. It's there was something Italian to it and not at the same time. So, I should have thought I should have thought Sardinia. Should have yeah. But anyways, you know, it was close enough. Come on, close enough.

[00:11:12]Leave me alone. It was close enough.

[00:11:13]Where is the muppet? Where did he go?

[00:11:15]There you go.

[00:11:17]All right, next. One more and then the rest go watch the original video but let's go.

[00:11:21]>> the next language. Please listen.

[00:11:33]Bim you had hope of a match.

[00:11:44]>> Now have a look at the language.

[00:11:46]>> It sounds a bit like Hebrew.

[00:11:48]So I don't know if it's a which variety, but to me it sounds definitely Semitic.

[00:11:53]But yeah, my money's on something cuz I just say Hebrew, he's going to be like, "Yeah, but it's the sub dialect of this region."

[00:11:59]>> Right it.

[00:12:11]>> I would say it would be just modern Hebrew.

[00:12:13]>> Okay, what language do you think it is?

[00:12:18]The language is Hebrew, specifically modern Hebrew.

[00:12:21]>> GG, guys. Come on, I didn't do too bad considering all things considered. I think it you know, it wasn't as embarrassing as it all would be. But anyways, I'm going to give him a like and there are more languages left. So do click the link in the description of pinned comment to go finish the video and see if you can guess the other languages. How did you do? Let me know in the comments. Thank you for watching and joining Metron's Academy and thank you LangFocus. That was quite fun.

[00:12:44]Bye.

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