Mystery Languages 2 - Can You Identify These Languages?

[@timhitchings601]

Paul, I am a 62 year old American monoglot (I know that is redundant). Your website, especially the reviews of language learning programs, is inspiring me to try to learn a second language. Please keep the videos coming. I especially enjoy the historical and geographic background for each languages development.

[@SRoth-cr1xw]

Tim Hitchings "American and monoglot (I know that is redundant)" --> very decent irony :-)

[@Xubuntu47]

Go for it! Languages are fun. Buck the "American=monoglot" stereotype.

[@geraldojosevalim7055]

Go for It!It helps preventing Alzheimer.

[@MegaTali15]

Come on, there is no age to learn a language!! Just find one that passionates you!! Good luck!! :)

[@icarouchoa1304]

I hope you made it to learn a new language!

[@ROKillUminati47]

I'm Romanian and when I have heard the Romanian audio I just smiled so much ! I really enjoy this "Mystery languages" series and I would really like to see more of them ^_^

[@iamasalad9080]

Spoilers!

[@shahars7108]

1. From the audio, I thought it might have been Persian, so when I was the written form I was completely lost 2. Lao 3. Romanian

[@starchy101]

As a Cebuano speaker I felt so happy!!!! Bisaya and Tagalog are actually quite different.

[@verdisquoi6862]

Awesome

[@arsantiqua8741]

The guy speaking sounds eerily familiar...

[@bruh-zs2xp]

Are you from The Philippines??

[@starchy101]

@@bruh-zs2xp yup, from Cebu city hehe 😁

[@jaysalas4217]

*Magellan freaks out*

[@Ignoscis]

My guesses: 1. Somali. Very far off... 2. Thai. Close! 3. Romanian. Correct!

[@lysyne._.]

#1 is Cebuano. One of the 8 Official Language of the Philippines or one of the 60+ languages in the Philippines. This is the reason why we Filipinos can't understand people who lives in some place because we have many languages.

[@lysyne._.]

We actually call ourselves Filipinos, lol. But the Filipino Language is a mix language of Tagalog, Spanish, English, Gay Language, Street Language, New words, some Chinese words, etc. but Tagalog is spoken formally-- no other languages involved. For example, the word 'chair', in Filipino, it is mostly called 'silya' (Spanish), 'bangko' )I don't know if it's Spanish) 'upuan'(Tagalog). But in a deeper Tagalog translation, it is called 'salumpuwit' which literally means 'butt holder'. Filipinos out there, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not really good with our language (I'm an English Major student)

[@lysyne._.]

and also, there are provinces in the Philippines who speak Tagalog fluently and have different accents.

[@rhbb8796]

Thought the same about the first one, as it sounded somewhat like Arabic with an African touch to me

[@frostycreeper1055]

+schad en freude The Philippines only has 2 official languages. Filipino and English. Unfair, right?

[@liron5889]

1) i guessed tagalog at the buzzer 2) i knew it was from southeast asia, and saw similarities with the thai script, so i guessed lao and i'm really proud of myself ngl 3) i was like "name a romance language obscure enough for paul to include"

[@Psychocatalyst]

Romanian sounds like Italian and Ukrainian had a language baby.

[@brianstangu1128]

Dude Romanian isn't a mixture of Bulgarian. Romanian is 85% Latin and 10% Slavic, Maybe the phonology might be similar to Bulgarian.

[@Вольныйказак-ю2й]

Ai observat si tu ca bulgarii au ceva cu noi, romanii, poate vreun complex de inferioritate,ceva.. asa si incearca sa ne demonstreze ca am preluat ceva de la ei.

[@TheMelopeus]

Te rog, youtube-ul nu are loc de nationalisti ca tine

[@Вольныйказак-ю2й]

TheMelopeus ei nu mai spune .. esti tu adminul?intoarce-te in vagauna de unde ai iesit ...

[@TheMelopeus]

Andrei Popescu Bine, continua cu atitudinea asta nationalista, pur si simplu idiotica din punctul meu de vedere. Nu stiu cum poti judeca pe cineva pur dupa nationalitate, parca suntem in secolul 19 -.-

[@madamadulici]

As I am Romanian,it is kinda funny to read the comments!

[@limetree4850]

I agree;)) In conclusion it seems that the Romanian resembles a Romance language with a Slavic accent.

[@vincejet]

I'm Cebuano and it's good to hear my native language :)

[@how6719]

Hello! Cebuano

[@Bartekkru100]

When you played Romanian I felt like I heard mix of spanish and Russian.

[@Bartekkru100]

And when you played lao I first thought of Chinese and then when you showed the written form Thai came to my mind.

[@meikel5669]

+Bartosz Kruszona Sounds more like Slavic-Italian to me.

[@Bartekkru100]

Ledge Russians are slavic.

[@Cserediak]

when i went to Romania i thought the same

[@nickferro7034]

It is crazy. It sounds like Spanish but without any of the Spanish words I guess.

[@BananaBoat629]

I guessed Romanian because it's my native tongue

[@pronounjow]

What did you guess for the other two?

[@soepicchannel9]

+Konos P Αυτος ο μαλακας γιατι δεν κανει ενα βιντεο ελληνικο

[@vilijanac]

To me sounded quite similar to Brazilian. :)

[@AaronSanabriaLee]

+Will Budic Brazilian is not a language...

[@vilijanac]

Aaron Sanabria Why?

[@dhatchbernier]

This is my favorite KZbin channel. Thank you, Paul.

[@Langfocus]

+David HB My pleasure!

[@QualityMapping]

Wow, I'm Romanian and I was watching the video and then I suddenly heard my language. lol. ^^

[@Tiberiu858]

Same. I got very surprised it got into this video. Paul you are great :).

[@epikar]

And, exceptionally, it was an important language. Usually the languages are very unknown. But maybe as a Czech I consider Romanian and Hungarian (ML 5) important although they are objectively so unimportant as Cebuano or Catalan. :p

[@stefaniabutica1203]

I`m Romanian too and I started laughing when I heard my language because I was really not expecting to hear it :)

[@Ida-xe8pg]

i was only able to guess lao because of that script and i almost guessed romanian it was preety familiar

[@akosbenedek4373]

I love how Szeklerland (Ținutul Secuiesc pentru vorbitori români) appears in the hearth of the country as a blind spot :))

[@satanlordofhell5834]

I love this series! I hope more gets made! You're doing a great job.

[@Langfocus]

Thanks! I plan to keep doing this sometimes.

[@satanlordofhell5834]

:)

[@geliumschatten5452]

+Langfocus please make a video about Romanian language =D

[@doublel7714]

I love these videos Paul! I know Romanian, so on the last example it was so funny realizing that I actually knew what the speaker was saying!

[@ketomousketo3345]

Wow, I absolutely loved Rumanian. It's sounds too cool to me. It's like a mix of Italian and Russian. And very easy to understand If you speak a native romance language (I'm a native spanish and french speaker)

[@zhabo3963]

I didnt get what she said. And i speak italian.

[@MixerVM]

For Romanian, I had first guessed Catalan, because it sounded like rapid, unintelligible Spanish to me. But when you showed the written form, I correctly guessed Romanian because of the diacritics not present in Catalan.

[@patrickponce4838]

same

[@Re_Kitty]

I live in Valencia and Catalan I think is more like a lovechild of French and Italians

[@Frahamen]

I thought first it was Sicilian when I've heard it but recognized it as Romanian when I saw it written. Also hint when they she said "Warsaw".

[@jacknoonan9172]

I live in Catalunya, it sounds nothing like Catalan haha. But maybe that's because I'm always listening to it.

[@porkboybob3166]

I knew it was an Eastern Romance language, and after seeing the written form I knew it was Romanian

[@alexradulescu9026]

Please continue making these videos! They really are fun to watch and to try to guess!!!

[@edgarsandoval289]

I love these types of videos! Please do more!

[@LoyaFrostwind]

Good game. I guessed Tagalog, Lao and Portuguese, even though the 3rd one sounded kind of Italian in tone. I didn't think of Romanian at all.

[@lolbia3161]

My guesses: 1-Tamil. I understood that it was an Asian language. I heard the long words and I just thought it was something like a Dravidic language. 2-Khmer. I understood that it was a tonal language, but then I saw the script and I thought it was similar to Khmer. I was wrong XD 3-Romanian. I could understand a lot of words (cause I'm Italian), but they sounded pronounced with a slavic accent. It was clearly Romanian to me.

[@SRoth-cr1xw]

LOLbia31 Khmer is not a tonal language, but there some shared vocabulary between Thai, Lao, and Khmer

[@Xubuntu47]

I don't believe Khmer is tonal. Try listening to 10 minutes of Khmer, then a tonal language. You will hear it. I don't speak Khmer, but I've heard it enough to usually recognize it when I hear it. It has a lot of trilled "r" and some weird (to me) consonant clusters.

[@SeintDirk]

Standard Khmer is not a tonal language, but expect dialect style.

[@devintheguru]

For sure the first one I got right, 'cause I could understand what the man was saying, LOL. So it's Cebuano, and not any other Filipino language. I'm really happy that you included Cebuano in this, since not many people are familiar with that language. It's quite distinct, and if you don't study the grammar and vocabulary, you're not gonna understand Cebuano. I grew up with Cebuano, and I still don't understand Tagalog. There're also false friends, words that look identical, but have different meanings, like gamot in Cebuano means root, but in Tagalog it means medicine, so just because a word looks the same doesn't mean they have the same meaning! Another example is langam, which means bird in Cebuano, but in Tagalog it means ant. The second one I thought was vietnamese at first, because city speakers and second/third gen viets don't have as strong of a nasal accent, but then as she kept speaking, I thought of Thai, so that was a good guess. I have Thai friends, and they sounded like that. The third one really threw me off, 'cause I wasn't aware that Romanian had such a strong Slavic influence. I thought it was some Slavic language that I wasn't familiar with, lol.

[@sikado777]

I'm a Bisaya/Cebuano speaker, but we don't speak that way in a daily conversational way. It's just like speaking Middle English. On a side note, how sad very few Filipinos watch Langfocus.

[@Langfocus]

Well, that was "the Jesus movie" so maybe they were trying to make it sound like King James English in Cebuano or something.

[@sikado777]

Hey! When are you going to come back here in our country?

[@Langfocus]

I was there about three weeks ago, so I'm not sure about the next time. Maybe in the winter.

[@sikado777]

I would be glad to see you. You're my idol!

[@marcorubenabuyuanllanes71]

+KGJ T Yeah, I'm a Filipino speaker and in these videos I generally hear people use very very pure and poetic filipino that I can't understand. I only use Filipino for very secular things, never educational.

[@samovarmaker9673]

My guesses: 1) uhh... Swahili? 2) I know it's something South-East Asian. Um... Burmese, maybe? 3) Spanish? No that would be too easy. Sounds like a Romance language. Italian? Definitely not Portuguese. Not sure if that's Romanian though. Also sounds a little Slavic. Slovakian? Hmmm... I guess it could be Romanian. Yes, Romanian!

[@marsgal42]

Number 1: Something to do with Indonesia or the Philippines? Words starting with "ng" were a clue here. Number 2: I guessed Thai, based on the long falling tone that sounds kinda whiney. The written form looks like Burmese, but isn't. Number 3: Romanian! Sounds like Italian with a Russian accent.

[@Langfocus]

Yes, the frequent use of "ng" is a big hint there.

[@1nopoint]

+Langfocus Paul, could you please do a video on the different Romanizations of languages that don't normally use a Latin alphabet.

[@chaserbaamalch757]

+EC912 Yeah, "ng" in beginning because in informal conversation, people tend to shorten the verbs by omitting the prefix such as "mengambil" becomes "ngambil", "mengintip" becomes "ngintip", etc.

[@djordjerasic7482]

can you do a video on scottish or irish or welsh? or on south slavic languages? or on armenian/georgian and other smaller languages in the caucasus area?

[@windsaw151]

What surprised me with Lao was that to me it sounded like a random language spoken backwards. Like some recording that was played back in the wrong direction. It did not sound related to chinese to me at all. I had no clue where it was from.

[@davidtiganila27]

1. some kinda indonesian language - I wasn't too far off geographically speaking 2. lao, surprised I got that one 3. Romanian!!!! also, please continue doing these, they're fun

[@kuyaleinad4195]

You're not too far linguistically either since I do hear a couple of cognates between Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia.

[@pebblebrookbooks4852]

i agree this is fun! another vote for more of these please Paul!

[@albertocoktama8333]

it's so different from indonesian

[@tomaszantochow8391]

Lol, I had more or less the same. THe first one I couldn't decide if it was some indian (as in native) language or prehaps somehting near indonesia, filipines etc. The second one I wanted to say Thai but I went Lao. Lol, my thought process was actually this: "It's the language that they speak in Laos, I know that city from somewhere. No I idea why, but I feel like I'm gonna be right". The 3rd one was a bit harder, because I couldn't decide if it was Italian or some weird creole or so with a slavic language, but I guessed right in the end.

[@observantori4893]

+alberto coktama were there any Indonesian words in there too? Or similar sounding words(from the Indonesian language)

[@Just4Kixs]

Cebuano speaker here - I was so amazed when my language was played. Not many people know about it. My guesses were: 1.) Cebuano 2.) Thai 3.) Romanian 2/3, not bad!

[@starchy101]

Pero ilang gi demo na Cebuano ky lawm kaayo 😅

[@clustervideos279]

@@starchy101 Kana gyung hasta mga Bisaya kay ma-nosebleed

[@starchy101]

@@clustervideos279 bitaw 😂😂😂

[@zodiac2861]

Lawm sd kaau giatay hapit ko wa kasabot, mura kog naboang sig paminaw nya bisaya ra diay to ahahahah

[@Just4Kixs]

Dili lalum. Kamo lang ang nagangal-angal diha kay wala mo kabalo kon unsay pagkigistoriyahay og Sinugbuanong awtentiko. Kay ngano? Sige mog sinagol ang Sinugbuanon ug Ininggles isip "Ceblish". Kana diay ang sala sa mga "bata nga gigarbohan nga bisaya", apan kon pasultion nila sa pinulongan mismo, wala gyud mogawas nga Sinugbuanon.

[@obake6290]

Guesses: 1) Looks mostly like some language from the Philippines or nearby, but parts look like they could have come from Spanish, so perhaps a creole language from that area? 2) Sounds like a southeast Asian language. I'll guess Thai or Vietnamese. 3) The structure and some of the words remind me most of Romance languages, but not one I've ever seen. I think I remember reading in the comments on this channel that Romanian is a Romance language, so I'll guess that.

[@obake6290]

One correct and two pretty damn close. I call this a success. These videos really drive home that I'm fairly hopeless when it comes to spoken language, but I work pretty well in text.

[@yabashe]

1: Yay, I guessed Filipino with some Spanish, so close enough! Not sure why, I only heard the spoken language a few times. 2: Oh, for some reason I thought it was Indian or Indonesian after hearing lots of nasal sounds. 3: I thought it was Spanish with some Slavic words, but didn't guess Romanian until after seeing the written sentences :D Guessing languages is fun! Feel free to do more of these.

[@stefanbirlog4622]

Well there is no indian language

[@aturninthegameof...4584]

1. Tagalog 2. Thai 3. Romanian, the writing system is very distinct, and the way it sounds like a Russian person trying to speak Italian gives it away more.

[@EvelynFox06]

A Turn In The Game Of... Not Tagalog but Cebuano :)

[@glennmosher1338]

Those were my 3 guesses exactly !

[@shortstvhindi4210]

Lao not thai

[@mariusstana]

Deci speram dar chiar nu ma asteptam !! Thank you for including my language !!

[@dariusstancioiu7662]

Și eu la fel, dădui pe videoul ăsta întâmplător, chiar nu mă așteptam să includă româna :)

[@ЮрийГагарин-з3ц]

+Darius Stancioiu Şi eu! Dar l-am rugat mai înainte să face un video despre limba româna :)

[@MegaDiscoZombie]

si eu loool

[@gabrielyfujz]

La fel si eu :))))

[@delipsp]

asteptam sa apara romana :')

[@caiobarbieri1487]

Man... Romanian sounds so cool!

[@iceylore7767]

Honestly, I always thought it is kinda weird.

[@shaide5483]

It’s a Romance language with 15%-ish Slavic vocabulary

[@listen2me00]

It was actually annoying as fuck

[@cosmarurifericite8815]

Thank you

[@carb_8781]

@@iceylore7767 true true haha

[@andreeaudescu5551]

Hey, Paul! I enjoy your content very much, it's very diverse and highly educational. I like that you discuss every topic in depth, providing both historical background / trivia and practical examples. But I gotta say the videos from this particular series, "Mystery Languages", are my favorite. Please keep them coming! Good luck and thanks for the quality content! :)

[@stefanostokatlidis4861]

1. Something between arabic and an indian language. 2. Chinese. 3. Romanian surely, and it doesn't seem to me so slavic sounding. More like italian.

[@esscate]

Romanian, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian all sound really similar to italian. If you ever hear "paerkelae", it's finnish, and if you ever hear "ohoydehoyohoydehorgeohoy" then it's hungarian. Still not sure about the other ones yet...

[@bantuvoicemuchaikinuthia2536]

stefanos tokatlidis.. He said hasira... That's arabic... I thought it was a arabicreole.. The I saw the written form.. I new its an eastern nationa... Like Indonesian or tagalog

[@peterg644]

Bary Marsh why are you comparing romanian with uralic languages? They are so unrelated.

[@xdxmv2359]

@@esscate wtf bro youre drunk XD hungarian and finnish do not sound like italian at all. Hungarian sounds like estonian tho. Im hungarian

[@devintheguru]

@@xdxmv2359 My thoughts exactly... Hungarian and Finnish are so... not even related to Romance languages. Estonian I'm not that familiar with, so I'll take your word for it, lol. I listen to some Finnish music, and I love the Finnish version of Let It Go, and there's nothing Italian about it, LOL. It doesn't even sound Indo-European, 'cause well, it isn't an Indo-European language.

[@brianfox771]

I guessed: 1. Cebuano: I speak it along with Hiligaynon, but it has been almost 20 years since I've heard or spoken it. The voice clip sounds like a native Tagalog speaker speaking Cebuano. Tagalog is spoken very quickly and has a harsh sound to it. Visayan languages are spoken a bit more slowly and are more mellow sounding (the woman's voice in the written portion is a good example). 2. When I heard it spoken I was guessing Vietnamese or Laotian, possibly Thai or Cambodian. When I saw it written I was leaning heavily toward Laotian or Thai. 3. When I first heard it I was thinking Portuguese or Romanian, possibly Romansh. When I saw it written, definitely Romanian. I have friends who spent time in Romania tell me that the language is an island of a Romance language in a sea of Slavic languages.

[@majortom8357]

No, It was spoken by a native. That way of speaking is how Olden Cebuanos talk. That 'harshness' and 'quickness' is pretty normal especially in the City of Cebu(of course without those archaic words and the way of forming verbs, though some may be still in use like the mi- , milabay instead of nilabay, etc.) I assumed you're from the Negros Island or Mindanao right?

[@Kennclarete]

Cebuano speakers who also speak Hiligaynon speak slower. Those who only speak Cebuano are pretty strong sounding.

[@clustervideos279]

Brian Fox Hiligaynon (gentle sound) Tagalog (average sound) Cebuano (harsh sound)

[@gauravradioactive]

I love the series of Mystery Languages and I am very eager to see such videos. Please keep uploading. Thanks a lot.

[@oscargomez6993]

Second one I guess Thai....and third one I guess right this time...Sounds Romanian to me because it sound Italian but faster and with some diferents So I guess right..Im being an spanish speaker myself i reconize all other latinos languages

[@oscargomez6993]

Or should I said Romance languages

[@bluetannery1527]

1) i had absolutely no clue ahahah 2) I thought it was Vietnamese... idk if it's related 3) Romanian. Spot on :-)

[@Lucky-df9ni]

Vietnamese looks different because it's been mixed with French

[@jadef8193]

I'm so happy that bisaya was featured!! I feel like it is not a common language that people would just know, but then again the tourism in Bohol, Cebu and other visayan speaking islands are getting more popular! So thank you!!

[@DareToSavorVanillaWithBacon]

As a Romanian, guessing Romanian was easy, but I wonder how obvious it was for non-speakers, given that Romania is directly referenced in the soundbite: "Sezonul de reduceri începe în forță și în ROMÂNIA..."

[@BetaDude40]

I can recognize Romanian because of the Latin phrases sprinkled in very Slavic-sounding sentences. If I can't decide if the language is Slavic or Romance, I kinda just resort to Romanian lol

[@besitzbelastet]

I could easily tell it was a Romance language, but it was more a case of logical deduction than hearing the specific reference: when I’m unfamiliar a specific language, I’m focusing more on the rhythms and melodies than specific items of vocabulary. I am familiar with Italian and French, which certainly helped me here, but this didn’t make me less inclined to listen to the rhythm.

[@jarnopalokari3702]

It sounded somewhat like Italian, but from the written part instantly stood out as Romanian.

[@nurzhan3269]

Lol I thought some Roman language first like some Spanish or Portuguese accent, but then listening further I got thinking about some slavic language. Shit so logical

[@TheRealWALLABI]

As a native speaker of French who knows Spanish, it sounded quite similar to Italian, but the pronunciation and accent sounded Slavic, as if it was a Russian speaking Italian, I was kinda confused, no offense intended of course.

[@cicero1178]

I understand that Romanian has Slavic influence but I can't here the 'slavicness' of it. It just sounds like a weird Latin language to me.

[@cicero1178]

*hear

[@mirceagogoncea]

Absolutely, Cicero! People way overestimate the "Slavicness" of Romanian. Especially în this segment, but also în general!

[@RJ-sy5xt]

0:36 It's Cebuano mix with Spanish, English, Tagalog, and Austronesian Languages that has combined, the Cebuano is VSO sentence. Well here the sentence is: *Pwede ko makatabang nimo?* Maybe I will help you. "Pwede" was derived in Spanish "Puede," ko was me connected to verb not subject, the root is tabang which means help + maka (future tense) and "nimo" is with you. Next sentence is: *Nanginahanglan ko ug doktor.* I need a doktor. Kinahanglan is the root word means "need someone" + nangi not nagki is "present tense" then, "ko" is me connected with "ug" which means identify an object to "doktor." Last sentence is: *Trayntay tres na ako edad.* Oh! Sounds like Spanish! I'm 13 years old While "na" (presented by age usually past tense) and "ako" is me was different in "ko." "Ako" was nearby subject and "ko" was before or after verb. *INTERESTING!* Edited: (I just added a 1 sentence) *Do you like Cebuano? Tell us in the reply section*

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

1. Tagalog 2. Sounds Thai or Lao, but definitely Lao script! 3. Slavic-spanish? Oh Romanian!

[@bluetannery1527]

Slavic-Spanish is actually accurate-Romanian is more or less what happens when a Romance language meets a Slavic language.

[@mirceagogoncea]

For the life of me, I cannot understand where you people are getting this from. There are *two* words of Slavic origin in the entire segment, compared to, for example, *five* loanwords from English. Do you guys just mean the phonology sounds Slavic? Or what exactly?

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

mirceagogoncea Phonology yes, but the grammar sounds like it has some latin to it.

[@mirceagogoncea]

Wait, you probably mean that the grammar sounds like it has some Slavic to it, right? Because, obviously, it has *a lot of* Latin in it (namely almost all of it). And while there are some features which are shared with some Slavic languages, those are not "Slavic grammar" at all (whatever that term may mean), but a symptom of Romanian being an integral part of the so-called Balkan Sprachbund, which contains both Romanian and a few Slavic languages (as well as some completely unrelated languages, such as Turkish, and Indo-European languages from different families, such as Greek and Albanian). These are not "Slavic features", as there is nothing to indicate that they originated within Slavic languages, nor are they shared by any Slavic languages that are not within the Balkan Sprachbund. These are, therefore, features of the Balkan Sprachbund, not Slavic features within Romanian. Also, what features do you mean exactly?

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

mirceagogoncea I meant it sounds like a Slavic trying to speak French or Spanish. With a slavic voice trying to pronounce Latin words..

[@dennisa.5300]

Another cool video. Bro, you're amazing

[@Langfocus]

Thanks, Dennis!

[@khalilogie9299]

+Langfocus good where are you from sir

[@dennisa.5300]

+Langfocus Sure! You've always been so informative

[@Fbiman93]

Please Keep these coming! My wife and I love them!

[@sonephomreuanglit5304]

My guess 1) Russian or Spanish 2) Lao (my native language) 3) Romanian

[@bts.dnabwl4586]

👍👍 thank you Paul for featuring one of the many dialect of Philippines.

[@buenvidanadz1969]

BTS. DNABWL It's not a dialect

[@prototype615h]

my guesses are 1.Bisaya (correct) - I speak that language 2.Thai (wrong) - The sound clip sound exactly like my Thai classmates 3.Italian (wrong) - I heard lots of kinda Italian/ Spanish words and the speed of speech was so Italian, but when I saw the written form, I then realized it was Romanian

[@ApachePieman]

1. Malay/Indonesian. Dang, i was actually juggling between that and Tagalog. 2. Burmese. I thought it was from South-East-Asia and looked like Thai when written, but that it definitely wasn't Thai. 3. Romanian. I am Russian myself and have had contact with many Romanians/Moldovans, especially the written language is really distinct and instantly recognisable for me.

[@mxd-1990asn]

No, the 2nd is Isan/Lao dialect spoken in the isan area in thailand (its a bit different from the usual thai) Thai is a tonal language like chinese , im thai/chinese mixed so i know the language and understood what the woman said. Its not burmese

[@Max-vj3zb]

The Lao one was soooo easy!!! You can tell immediately from the written example 😁

[@ilplolthereturn7525]

Me: (confidentially) Thai! Paul: the language is Lao Me: *F*CK*

[@BeGioBijoux]

please do some more, I love your videos! congrats on the content

[@m.pellegrini2540]

1) It sounds like Arabic (the gutturals) mixed with Tagalog/Malay. The written sample looks like Malay, Tagalog or something Melayo-polynesian. (Well, it was close, except for Arabic) 2) Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese.It's definitely Asian, but it's not Japanese or Korean because it has tones. The written sample looks like Thai or something from South India, so it can't be Chinese or Vietnamese. (Yay! I was close again!) 3) It's Romanian! It's quite similiar to Italian. I understood something and I think the written sample says something like : "I'm sorry", "Can you repeat?" and "Leave me alone!". I didn't really understand the 3rd one though. Maybe it says "A single language doesn't add anything" (?)

[@bogdanescu86]

a single languange is never enough

[@brianstangu1128]

Could you please translate the sentences into Italian, I would like to see how similar it is to Romanian.

[@Bolkonskyz]

+Brian Stangu una sola lingua non è mai abbastanza

[@asianicotra9648]

+Brian Stangu 1) Scusami! 2)puoi ripetere, per favore? 3) una singola lingua non è mai abbastanza 4)lasciami in pace! You're welcome ;)

[@observantori4893]

1) Austronesian

[@ValisVengeance]

First - No idea. Thought maybe Austronesian of some kind. It had that aboriginal feel but with South East Asia. Its hard to describe. Never would have guessed what it was though. Second - Easier I think. Its tonal but its not Chinese. I know Chinese people and this doesn't sound like any of them. At first I thought Vietnamese, Burmese, Cambodia, Thai - that area! I cancelled out Vietnamese cos there was no difficult "ng" sounds. Then she said "Lao" close to the end which made me think of the country. I knew it was around there so jumped on Laos - turns out I was right!! Lucky, but right! :) Third - Woah!! That felt like a machine gun going off. Spanish is spoken like that but its not Spanish because I'd recognise more words. My initial feel was Portuguese because I've always said "Portuguese sounds like Spanish spoken with a Russian accent". Dunno why it sounds like that but that's how I identify it. BUT seeing the writing system it defo wasn't Portuguese! I recognise that writing but it wasn't coming. Its obviously Romance because slowed down it sounded Italian., Fast it sounded like odd Spanish/Portuguese. But I didn't guess it!! I feel stupid once I realised what it was. Especially considering I recently watched your video on the language!!! Truly the "forgotten" Romance language. Well played. :p Love this series. Its great!

[@blacker4404]

Lol, it's not that every single sentence in Vietnamese has the difficult "ng" sound.

[@glennmosher1338]

I enjoyed this very much, Paul ! Keep it coming !

[@rainerkurvers4365]

Hi, very nice video. Romanian is the only Romance language that kept the old latin word 'alba' for 'white'.

[@tziuriky86]

Incorrect :-) In Limba Sarda (Sardinian Language) we have "albu" to say white, although some young people, who don't speak Sardinian properly nowdays, just say "Biancu" from the Italian "Bianco". And in Italian there is also "Albino" (which means the same as in English) and "Albume" which is the egg-white, but these are just derivates from the original latin word.

[@ellyxelena4575]

In Romanian, the word "alb" means "white". And there a city named "Alba-Iulia".

[@TheFruttoEsotico]

Interesting. We have "limba" in Romanian too, for instance Romanian language is "Limba română". It can also mean tongue by the way

[@realnanak4809]

Rainer Kürvers u right but albanian language has more latin words even some similarities with romanian which means we were bros before

[@xhoimalo7376]

“Alba” is Albanian word. Alba-nia😉

[@casper7574]

The first one sounded a bit Arabic

[@Nilguiri]

Mmm, not really! haha.

[@scoshi6592]

It sounded like a middle eastern language to me, but I knew it's not Arabic because that's my native language

[@1nopoint]

I thought that too. Probably because it has a lot of those weird/harsh throat sounds that only exist in Semitic languages like Arabic.

[@Jp007]

I thought it sounded kinda like an African language with Arab influence, but deep down I had no idea :P

[@Zoito-99]

Trust me it didnt at all. Maybe a weird arabic dialect because I know arabic but only 1 dialect. Lebanese.

[@wirsindhelden0]

I am seriously very excited and have to pat myself on the back! I guessed all of these immediately with a bit of momentary trip up with Lao: I guessed Lao but when looking at the written language, i thought it looked different than what I'd seen before, more like Burmese or Shan, but eventually landed on my original guess: Lao. The first was so easy - "hm... Sounds and looks like Tagalog, but that's too obvious, so...Cebuano? I've also always thought Romanian was a fascinating language and decided about a week ago that I'd start learning it soon, so that was almost cheating! I know nobody cares, but I'm actually quite proud! Thanks Paul.

[@edwardweeden2834]

Please continue this series. If Romanian is closest to Latin in some respects, is Italian second? I was alway taught by my Latin teachers that Portuguese was very close too. Thanks for a very interesting channel!

[@tudorjinga6059]

Romanian is about 65% Latin, Italian is 60% (or somewhere amog those lines) Anyway, there's only about a 5% difference witch is not that much.

[@hizaleus]

I thought Romanian did not have declension. I was always told Spanish is the closest to Latin. I think rating closeness or languages based on vocabulary is very misleading because of borrowing (except maybe pronouns), grammar and syntax seem more intrinsic.

[@varana]

People want to have their language be the closest to Latin because that sounds cool. So they tend to use those parts of the language where that may be true to some extent, and conveniently ignore the others. :D

[@Philoglossos]

In terms of vocabulary and pronunciation, Sardinian is by far the closest, followed by (tuscan/standard) Italian. Romanian is archaic because of its case system, but there's actually no consensus on whether this is inherited from Latin or simply an innovation due to Slavic influence. Otherwise, it is very innovative, so if would be wrong to call it the "closest to Latin". Portuguese is extremely innovative, although not nearly as much so as French.

[@Philoglossos]

Map of Ibera circa 900 AD: www.orbilat.com/Maps/Iberia/Iberia_0900.gif Al Andaluz covered pretty much all of modern Portugal. Portuguese received just as much Arabic influence as Spanish xP.

[@AyyQueRicooo]

1. Holla @ my bois in the Philippines, with love from a boricua 2. Sound like Thai with a Vietnamese accent, looking like Thai 3. Too heavy accent to be Italian, not Latin romance-y enough to be Portuguese, so probably other outsider the 5th and final, Romanian or something of the like, but looking kinda Polish but still Romanian (?)

[@AyyQueRicooo]

r.i.p. my answers

[@dedos206]

Cállate

[@AyyQueRicooo]

+Alejandro Recio Villegas Cállate

[@AyyQueRicooo]

+Alejandro Recio Villegas Cállate

[@dedos206]

¿solo copias y pegas?

[@robinblue9032]

Loved this! Thank you

[@bmilner1911]

For the last one the first language which came to mind was one like Sardinian or Corsican

[@まくぽっち]

I guess: 1. A language from SEA, but not quite close to Malay, by the simple phonology. 2. Thai?! Lao??, by the tonal sound and some phonetic features. But """Lao""" by script. 3. Some Roman-ish (Slavic-ish? ) sound? Like more Slavic-like, some soft consonant. DDDDD: Almost all correct :D

[@winnugrohowiratman6234]

These were my answers; 1. Filipino 2. Thai/ Burmese 3. Romanian I'm Indonesian, so I slightly can recognized the language for number 1 and 2. For number 3, I recognized it was sound like Spanish/ Portuguese. But at the end I heard some Russian influence in it. Then I remember one of your video explaining about Romanian language. Please make video about Javanese language. I am interested how there are levels in it. How you must use completely different word if you are talking to person with different background in society. I want to know your perspective. It is my ancestral language. But since I was born in Jakarta, my first language is Bahasa Indonesia, although I can understand some degree of Javanese. My father speak Javanese very well but never spoke to me using it.

[@Tuchulu]

1.- Thought it was Tagalog because of the Spanish loan words 2.- A chinese language, because of the tonality, then with the writing i thought it was Thai 3.- Some italian dialect, sardinian?

[@Bolkonskyz]

3. Romanian

[@epsiloommac]

Same as you, except for 3, my wife is from Romania! ;)

[@stepperokkio1]

3. As an Italian speaker, I also guesses a Italian-Slavic dialect, like Friulan or Romansh. I guess I was not that far away...

[@epsiloommac]

+stef_mir latin dacian instead...

[@sugarfrosted2005]

You're not totally wrong about Romanian. Romania used to be part of Italy.

[@jacksoneddy4372]

Ok so first I guessed Filipino, then Thai, and then I nailed Romanian.

[@leebogi]

1: Tagalog (close) 2: Thai (close, the script told me I was wrong) 3: Couldn't guess just wondered why there was so much Latin vocab in some Slavic language? Great episode!

[@flowerflojo5]

*I WAS VERYYY CLOSE* 1. Tagalog 2. Thai 3. Ukranian

[@zarkarimi]

no, Ukranian and Romanian are from different language sub-families.

[@cocoapuff_x]

df2ll I HAD THE SAME LIKE YOU! Except I switched Ukrainian with Russian.

[@thatboiryqn]

Romanian is not close to Ukrainian or russian at all. Romanian is closely related to Italian... it’s from a completely different family of languages. But, Romanian is about 15% Slavic, so I guess you weren’t horribly off. Just not as close as you thought. Anyways, good job on the first 2.

[@epikar]

In this quiz there are never such important languages like Russian.

[@bankthanadorn4598]

bro, im thai and i understood all of what she said there, like every single word, youre good

[@lyonnw7691]

1. Cebuano - Sounds like Tagalog. I really thought it was Tagalog at first but I heard some unfamiliar words so I just guessed Cebuano. 2. Lao - Just by listening to it, I really thought it was Thai at first but the scripts really gave it away. 3. Some Latin-based language but with Slavic pronunciations - I could recognize a few Latin words but I was really confused with the pronunciations because it sounded Russian to me.

[@lysyne._.]

Cebuano is spoken by Filipinos.

[@monkeypie8701]

1) A hun type language, maybe Finno-Ugric, Slavic, East Asian, Southwest Asian, Uralic, Turkic-Mongolic Mixture? 2) Sounded like someone speaking in reverse, maybe a Slavic-East Asian mixture 3) When listening I immediately hear some Spanish words but the written text looks/sonds Arabic-Turkic, maybe Andalusian or Canary islands?

[@SilentClouds]

1. phillipines - I heard it before. 2. korean - or something related. 3. Romanian - I listen to their music so I'm familiar with it.

[@november1394]

Silentsky wow ,do you listen romanian music?happy to read this.:) wich romanian singers do you like?

[@SilentClouds]

november 13 no particular artist, mostly the pop music. latest song I liked is lora:fara el.. :),. are you Romanian?

[@november1394]

Silentsky thanks for answered me.yes,i am romanian

[@schlomoshekelstein4309]

silentsky if you want i can recommend you some music. Better than lora i'm sure :D

[@Kyle-xk2rb]

Haha I listen to romanian music too... not a native romanian :)

[@tudormihai8674]

WTF!!A 73 year-old grandma that is DJ in Warsaw????

[@Langfocus]

Yeah, look her up. She's pretty cool! lol

[@RR-qv8uz]

I heard Varsovia and coz I speak Spanish , was like huh??? 🤣🤣🤣 That’s heaps cool -I’m a DJ too but -30 hahaha

[@DaniloInderWildi]

My guesses: 1. Didn't have a clue ... I thought of some spanish creole. 2. First I thought of Korean, until I realized that it has a more "southeastern" touch, so I sticked with Vietnamese. 3. Romanian, without any doubt. Even though in the first few seconds it sounded like a very strange Italian to me. ;)

[@arthurmv2703]

1. Some arican language 2. Some asian language 3. Romanian (yeah) i'm from Brazil

[@retsreinyrelgeinthrelaveri1456]

"some arican(I'm guessing you tried to spell african) language", but dude what? Likehow is Cebuano even close to african

[@n0lain]

1. Maltese 2. Thai 3. Romanian

[@n0lain]

***** Eh I got 1.5 right

[@n0lain]

***** I got Romanian right and I got Laos half right so I got 1 and a half right.

[@brianstangu1128]

Are you Italian ''spaghetti" haha

[@mosessumaoy608]

Paul the first one you played is classical Cebuano, I speak that language as my mother language.

[@retsreinyrelgeinthrelaveri1456]

Kamusta aking Pilipinong kapatid

[@Spinna720]

1: tagalog 2: Thai 3: Romanian

[@Spinna720]

thats what i guessed

[@MegaDiscoZombie]

same im romanian

[@xavieralfonso3926]

Random Man that's exactly what I guessed!

[@iceahpeterormillada6235]

I was shocked to hear my native language (Cebuano/Bisaya) when the first piece of audio played. Lol

[@cocoapuff_x]

1. Filipino YAS CLOSE LANGUAGE Well it sounded like Filipino/Tagalog with Spanish/English loanwords like doctor. 2. Thai Ok the written script looked like Thai and it sounded like Thai and East Asian Languages mixed together. 3. Russian It sounded like Russian mixed with Spanish.

[@arihitoetsukazu2658]

1. It sounds like a Spanish language, but written, it remembered me a Philippes language, but I didn't guess which one so I said Tagalog. 2. Sounds like an Asian language... when I saw the alphabet, it remembered me Thai, so I said Thai. I wasn't far. 3. Another Spanish-Portuguese-Latian language... When I saw the vocabulary, I said Romanian.

[@karayildiz1410]

I guessed Romanian! I heard someting about Warsaw :D

[@puffyish]

Zuzanna Zalewska Dj vinca a 73 year old women had a concert in Warsaw and that she is very popular among youngsters :D

[@stefantrandafir1099]

@@puffyish DJ Vica nu Vinca

[@myusernameissoobnoxiouslyl9407]

1. Had no idea until I saw the text, the “makatabang” instantly said Indonesia/Philippines. Guessed Tagalog. 2. Sounded Cantonese/Mandarin but the letters helped me to guess Thai. 3. Instantly sounded romance and could tell by the unique pronunciation that it was Romanian.

[@denisandor3753]

Când am auzit-o pe Andreea Esca era clar :)))

[@BlueSwampyCraft]

Denis Andor Aia nu era Andreea Esca! E tipa blonda frumoasa tot de la ProTv nu știu cum o cheamă.

[@flaviusiulian5575]

BlueSwampyCraft defapt aia e Octavia Geamanu care prezenta observator special. xD

[@lidiacandrianu]

Fata care citea textele scrise avea tonul tipei blonde din Baieti de Cartier

[@iceylore7767]

Ce sa mai

[@ahmadnicolaekhalaf8987]

1- had no idea 2-sounded like Japanese 3 -i knew it's Romanian because.. I speak it.

[@mr.bunnywabbit2048]

lol exactly what I thought

[@ZadenZane]

Cebuano I thought was Indonesian... then I thought it was a Tibeto-Burman language from India (because I thought I heard an Indian accent). Lao I thought was Thai although it seems to go up and down more than Thai. More shifts in pitch than in Thai. The last one: I thought it was Portuguese from Brazil... but then she seemed to mention Warsaw which seemed strange because Warsaw's a long way from Brazil!

[@bayusetiadi]

1. tagalog (close) 2. thai (close) 3. portuguese (close) :D

[@emmageorgia1564]

Not a Tagalog tho.. I'm tagalog speaker

[@patrickfilion7950]

my guesses: 1. Turkish 2.Thai 3.Romanian

[@mxd-1990asn]

2nd is Lao ,not thai

[@anthony17mapoy46]

My guesses: 1. Cebuano (closer to Tagalog) - because of a lot of Spanish loanwords 2. Lao (mutually intelligible with the Thai language) - developed from Proto-Tai-Kadai language 3. Romanian (like Italian and French combined + Slavic influence) --Anthony Emmanuel N. Mapoy

[@lizette2840]

1):some middle east language. 2): Chinese. 3): some Italian dialect I was sooo wrong haha.

[@nov0caina]

lmao, I thought the same hahah

[@lizette2840]

+Carlos Abel Meza Enriquez ¡reprobados!

[@lizette2840]

+Kolynk really? why?, just because I have never heard those languages before?, I live in a country where SPANISH is the most spoken language, what do you mean by "Americans" btw?, by people from the United States? if so, you're the only moron here, greetings from Mexico.

[@lizette2840]

+Kolynk you're just seeking for attention, there, there.., goodbye pathetic xenophobic.

[@juanpaxv]

Woah man what is your problem? I hope you are a troll

[@victorgeorgescu4454]

romanian is the easiest One ! because i'm romanian

[@RJ-sy5xt]

But how we will learn Romanian?

[@retsreinyrelgeinthrelaveri1456]

"Ah yes, I can see the floor because it is the floor and I have eyes"

[@Grekkelmakker]

I didn't do so well on this one! 1. I did guess Tagalog, since the audio sample sounded a lot like the language my former co-workers from the Philippines used to speak to each other. 2. I really wasn't sure on this one, since I recognized the writing as sort of like Thai, but a little different. I couldn't guess better than "something related to Thai" 3. I guessed Romanian. I could tell from the Slavic sound influence, and the writing just made me sure. This series is a lot of fun, I hope we see more!

[@2urdesire_]

Haayyy my language was in here!! (Lao)

[@DreamingButton]

Translating from English to English what the guy said in the beginning: "It doesn't really matter if you guess right, it really only matters to stay here and fill the page with comments and drag as much people in to make it popular so i can sell my thing." Yea ok dude, let me make you happy although i'd never pay for such language app. Otherwise i never knew my native language Romanian is so "exotic" and hard to guess.

[@Langfocus]

So many haters who think they know everything. *smh*

[@DreamingButton]

I don't know everything but that's really how it sounds from a Romanian perspective. You surely know more about languages than me but I will not beat my mouth with theories about being overly comercial. Your target public has been reached. My opinion, irrelevant and not intended to be otherwise.

[@Langfocus]

Elicitng comments and creating discussions has nothing to do with commercial interests. I do it on all of my videos because it's educational, and only 12 of my 100 videos are sponsored by italki. Maybe you think I'm sitting on my ass getting rich from this, but in reality I would make much more money working the same number of hours at McDdonalds. I do this to make more people interested in languages, because I want my life to be meaningful. But if you think I shouldn't a make a modest amount of money for the huge amount of time and effort I invest, sorry that's ridiculous.

[@DreamingButton]

It's not that, it's just how it sounded wen you said it in this particular video. Sure you must gain your bread somehow. Stay cool, after all I did share 2 of your videos so far. I like the one about the beduin girls, this is how I learned my English wen I was a kid.

[@elizabethfreedman2757]

Love this series! Keep it going! My guesses were: 1. "Filipino" - I knew I was in the right country because of the Spanish loanwords with heavy guttural and labial pronunciation, but I don't know enough to have pinpointed the specific language. 2. Lao - sounds like Thai, but more so (must be the extra tone) 3. Romanian- "foarte" was the tip-off.

[@DarthGTB]

This was the first time I listened to the Romanian language. At first I was like "oh... this must be related to Russian" (I'm studying Russian). But then I was like "WTF, I can hear Italian here as well?" (I'm an Italian descendant and my family speaks Veneto from the 1900's all the time (I'm Brazilian and my family came to Brazil after slavery was abolished here)) I wonder when and how did Latin and Slavic languages mixed like that...

[@bogdanescu86]

check out his video on the romanian language, he goes more in depth

[@rds7516]

Cover the baltic languages :/

[@SigiL2]

totally got the Lao language. I've watched so much King of the Hill I can't possibly forget what it sounds like

[@eduard-valentin.cazacu]

România eeeeeee

[@PavlosPapageorgiou]

1. I thought it sounded kind of Arabic with Spanish words. Would have said some Semitic language like Amharic as a wild guess. (Its probably not like it that at all.) 2. I would have said Thai or maybe Vietnamese. 3. Romanian. It sounded like weird hard-to-grasp Italian. Would have said maybe an Italian dialect like Genovese, but the alphabet gave it away.

[@linguafiqari]

Amharic sounds very different to Cebuano, because it has ejective consonants.

[@BigBad-Wolf]

Nah, couldn't have been Arabic, far too soft.

[@MrFranciss]

Soooo far from arabic :D

[@BigBad-Wolf]

Ulfric Stormcloak Death to the Stormcloaks! Down with the kingslayer!

[@MrFranciss]

Big Bad Wolf So much hate.

[@oinophilos3588]

1. Malay--guessing from some of the sounds 2. Cambodian--from the script, but I don't really know the difference from Lao. I just knew it wasn't Thai. 3. Rumanian--Romance language with characteristic diacritics Do continue. This is a lot of fun as well as being informative.

[@marcelmargaha1783]

That's a cebuano or bisaya that's my language bisaya in tawon ko ui