Language quiz

[hwhatting]

Maybe y'all already have seen that, but if you have some time to kill...
On the whole, even if I don't know the languages, I can work on exclusion (multiple choice, after all). But I mis-guessed Cantonese for Mandarin, knowing drat about Cantonese (and very little Mandarin) and being thrown off by "ni hao".
Also, they seem to re-use the samples, so after doing it a few times you'll do better by simply recognizing what you heard before.
EDIT: Actually, they're even repeating specific combinations. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy...

[Qwynegold]

There was a very similar quiz posted some time ago, but it had a different interface. In that one you had to distinguish between such languages as Croatian and Serbian, or Hindi and Urdu. Here I had to distinguish between German and Swiss German. :/ Got 7/8 anyway; mistook Zulu for Swahili.

[Rui]

On the whole, even if I don't know the languages, I can work on exclusion (multiple choice, after all). But I mis-guessed Cantonese for Mandarin, knowing drat about Cantonese (and very little Mandarin) and being thrown off by "ni hao".

The way to tell the difference is that Cantonese has a lot of [ɔ], which is a sound that Mandarin does not have a lot of (only found following [w]). Also [ɔi] is exclusively Cantonese (cf. "m goi", probably one of the most common expressions in Cantonese)

[finlay]

Also, 90% of Mandarin words sound like "shrrrng", and Cantonese has more glottal stops and final consonants.

[Nannalu]

Neat, 8/8.

[Bristel]

I got 6/8 on one, and 7/8 on a slightly different test. I recognized Aranese and German the easiest out of all the languages. I think my contact with Catalan made recognizing Aranese the easiest.

The hard part was recognizing Zulu, or languages that are closely related or in close contact.

Greek was also hard, because it sounded like a man mumbling Spanish. :S

[Qwynegold]

The hard part was recognizing Zulu, or languages that are closely related or in close contact.

Yeah, I couldn't hear any clicks in that clip.

[Clearsand]

I got 5/8 and 3/8 .

Also, 90% of Mandarin words sound like "shrrrng", and Cantonese has more glottal stops and final consonants.

Really? I don't think there was any erhua, and I think there was only one shrrrng in the clip. I guess I'm just desensitized from studying Chinese.

The hard part was recognizing Zulu, or languages that are closely related or in close contact.

Yeah, I couldn't hear any clicks in that clip.

I think there might have been a couple. They were just pretty quiet so they didn't stand out.

[Nortaneous]

cantonese is bawk ng fawk høt døng ng cawk, mandarin is yo yo yo jur khwa jur chung shee jur ching chung toong shee nee khwa jur chung le

[Clearsand]

cantonese is bawk ng fawk høt døng ng cawk, mandarin is yo yo yo jur khwa jur chung shee jur ching chung toong shee nee khwa jur chung le

Too true.

[Fixsme]

4/8
... twice.
... and I was not alone...

[finlay]

I got 5/8 and 3/8 .

Also, 90% of Mandarin words sound like "shrrrng", and Cantonese has more glottal stops and final consonants.

Really? I don't think there was any erhua, and I think there was only one shrrrng in the clip. I guess I'm just desensitized from studying Chinese.

That was more of a general rule than thinking about this clip in particular, tbh.