Mystery Languages 3 - Can You Guess These Languages? (PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION)

►Learn a language with Pimsleur: imp.i271380.ne... ► Get started with a free trial!
(Disclosure: The above link is an affiliate link, so Langfocus gets a small referral fee - at no extra cost to you)
My apologies for using an incorrect flag in the video. There is no political intention behind it (I never do anything with political intention.). *
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
This is the third installment in the "Mystery Languages" series. Can you guess all three out of three? Listen to samples of a language, then see samples of the language, and try to guess what language it is!
Support Langfocus on Patreon: / langfocus
Special thanks to: Brandon Gonzalez, Ruben Sanchez, BJ Peter DeLaCruz, Michael Cuomo, Eric Garland, Brian Michalowski, Sebastian Langshaw, Yixin Alfred Wang, Vadim Sobolev, Raymond Thomas, Simon Blanchet, Ryan Marquardt, Sky Vied, Romain Paulus, Panot, Erik Edelmann, Bennet, James Zavaleta, Ulrike Baumann, Ian Martyn, Justin Faist, Jeff Miller, Stephen Lawson, Howard Stratton, George Greene, Panthea Madjidi, Nicholas Gentry, Sergios Tsakatikas, Bruno Filippi, Sergio Tsakatikas, Qarion, Pedro Flores, Raymond Thomas, Marco Antonio Barcellos Junior, David Beitler, Rick Gerritzen, Sailcat, Mark Kemp, Éric Martin, Leo Barudi, Piotr Chmielowski, Suzanne Jacobs, Johann Goergen, Darren Rennels, and Caio Fernandes for their generous Patreon support.
* / langfocus
/ langfocus
/ langfocus
langfocus.com*
Sources of language samples in this video:
Catalan audio clip: • News in Catalan of RTV...
Catalan written/audio phrases: www.omniglot.co...
Amharic audio clip: • Video
Amharic written/audio phrases: www.omniglot.co...
Tamil audio clip: • Video
Tamil written/audio phrases: www.omniglot.co...
Music:"Roll the Top Down" by Gunnar Olson.
Outro music: "Rollin' Back" by MK2.

[@Langfocus]

My apologies for using the wrong flag of Catalonia. That's the one I found when I searched for the flag of Catalonia, and I had seen it in photos of Barcelona so I thought it was the official flag, not an independence flag. As subscribers probably know, I never do anything with political intention.

[@Vryheidmensen]

Й I guessed 1 and 2 correctly. A weird writing system for language 3 and I guessed ******* (not revealing any language names because ŠPOILERS)

[@prplz]

I was able to see this comment so it gave that one away! :(

[@user-jr9dv4pe5c]

Langfocus you should make a video on Dardic languages (Kashmiri, Chitrali, Khowar, Pashayi, Shina, Domaaki) or on Dravidian languages

[@martalli]

Nishank Rangarajan Do one on my favorite, Kannada. I am always telling my Tamil wife that I'm an "amateur Kannadiga", like my son and I are "amateur astronomers".

[@younosgad5818]

Langfocus can you please do a redo for the Arabic language I'm from Egypt myself

[@songio77]

Paul, I think you'll find interesting my experience with Catalan. I'm Italian, from Lombardy. My grandma spoke me almost exclusively in lombard language. I married a woman from Barcelona and I started learning Spanish. I learnt it easily but Catalan came just without any effort. It was like having it already inside.To me, Catalan is like another Lombard language and it has actually taken the place of Lombard in my head. Now, when I try to speak Lombard, Catalan comes out instead. When I speak Spanish in Catalonia, they detect I'm Italian. When I speak Catalan, no one realizes I'm foreigner and everybody is so surprised. And one last anecdote: when I told my father how much Catalan was close to Lombard, he told me that years before, people from a Catalan company had come to work in his company in Milan. When they tried to communicate Spanish with Italian, conversation came out not so smooth but then they switched to Catalan with Lombard and they got along much better. So, according to my experience, Catalan is part of a linguistic region that stretches from the Eastern shores of Spain to South France (langue d'oc) up to Northwestern Italy.

[@LextrickZombies]

Tens tota la raó :) El Català, l'occità i el Llombard està demostrat que son part del sub grup de llengües gallo-romaniques. D'aqui ve la seva similitud.

[@FrankieHeat]

Tütt i volt che sent al catalano me vegn in ment al dialett dal mæ papà (Val Ciavéna). :)

[@pianoman598]

I thought the second language was sign language because I was watching on my smartphone and no sound came out of the speakers xD

[@JupiMeow]

Same! Very odd.

[@thefremddingeguy6058]

It's kind of explained in the description

[@rizwansproductions3926]

Yes no sound came...

[@pearspeedruns]

Four years later, I guess smartphones have gotten better. I can hear it fine.

[@FenceThis]

Christian Aliferis No they haven't and I can still hear nada

[@joeglennfernando7295]

The last one is my native tongue! I started laughing when I heard that. 😅 The audio was a news audio clip talking about a catastrophe that happened due to fireworks.

[@literato169]

Mine was the first language, so I laughed too! 🤣 Edit: The audio talked about a race.

[@joeglennfernando7295]

@@literato169 Aah, Catalan! I heard it and was like, I kinda understand this, but not completely. I know Spanish, so it sounded very familiar

[@parisfrans]

1.) Catalan I speak Spanish and French and as soon as I saw the “si us plau,” I called it 2.) I thought it was Hebrew because of the writing but apparently it was related! Glad to have learned about this language 3.) Tamil I once went to Singapore for a conference and remembered that Tamil was one of their 4 official languages due to the vast population of South Indian descendants 💕

[@andimuhammadrifkialqadri4001]

my guess: 1. Jeopardy 2. Jeopardy 3. Jeopardy

[@ilyascan3758]

1 I guessed portuguese because sounds so latin but not french, spanish or rumanian 2 I guessed it correctly because i searched semitic languages a few years ago 3 I shouted 'tamil' in my room and my flatmate came to ask 'are you OK'

[@toucaninterieur8011]

You mean semitic languages because sami is similar to finnish

[@ilyascan3758]

thank you for your comment ahurachek

[@seveneye7614]

Ahuratchek I think the same lol

[@Saller93]

no man, portuguease nasalizates all the vowels begore N and M. But nice guess, as a portuguese speaker, the pronouncing is closer to portuguese than Spanish

[@thnidu]

Saller Raczmanikow you're right on that. I knew it wasn't Portuguese because there were no nasalized valves. I figured it was some Ibero-Romance language, probably Catalan but maybe Asturian. Seeing the writing helped.

[@EccoLena]

Paul, these are my favourite videos! I hope you will make more of these. They really make you stop and think!

[@onebrownmeece]

Just a note, the two Tamil samples were in two different registers: the first is high / literary Tamil, and in both syntax and vocabulary very different from the simpler low / casual register. I am a native speaker of the casual register but I have a very hard time with the literary.

[@jcxkzhgco3050]

Similar enough tbh . I speak casual register and learn/read high register on a daily basis

[@oldschoolpoet91]

They feel like two separate languages to me lol and I've been speaking casual tamil for decades

[@barathn6239]

Tamil is one of the ancient language till now in spoken. Paul must make a separate video about Tamil.

[@AWSMcube]

1- Romanian or Catalan. Leaning more towards Romanian. 2- Amharic 3- Some Dravidian language. Tamil? Telugu?

[@MsSongsSinger]

1. The baby of French and Spanish... (close enough) 2. Arabic? (kind of lol no) 3. India! (not a language but at least I got the country...)

[@diegosuaza4466]

xD

[@TundraGD]

Speaking of Tamil, you should do a video on Dravidian languages.

[@Arunsharma-jl9lf]

Yeah

[@aydc6740]

Arun sharma ya

[@henribes7460]

Yes, interesting suggestion.

[@edennoachas9026]

In my opinion this was the easiest video of the "Mystery Languages" saga (i guessed 3/3). I´m a native Spanish and Hebrew speaker and English as learned language. Continue making your videos, they are really good! I would like to know more about Amharic...

[@merrymerryjerry6736]

My guesses were 1. Romanian (wrong: it was Catalan) 2. Georgian (wrong: it was Amharic) 3. Tamil (correct!)

[@jonezmontenegro3916]

Lool that script kinda looked Georgian hey?

[@arunjosep5362]

im tamil from srilanka

[@rodograbby6268]

Mine were: 1. Some sort of Spanish Creole (Incorrect) 2. Georgian (Incorrect) 3. Tamil (Correct) I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that that looked like Georgian.

[@batdude811]

It kind of gave it away when I saw the written form because I can recognise pretty much most languages with different scripts.

[@pyruvicac.id_]

That`s so funny, because I just guessed Catalan initially in Romanian in the last video.. :0

[@JaneFreguglia]

A friend of mine presented your channel and I am very grateful to this. Your channel is intelligent and informative. Thank you!!

[@Langfocus]

+Jane Freguglia It's my pleasure! I'm glad you're here. Say thanks to your friend for me!

[@benl9047]

1. I guessed Catalan easily. I just spent 3 years in Barcelona and hearing Catalan again made me smile, so thank you for bringing back all those good memories! 2. This one I really didn't know. When I saw the weird script I thought it looked like Georgian or Armenian, so I was way off. 3. I knew right away it sounded Indian. I guess because I'm British and we have a lot of Indian people here. When I saw the script it didn't look like a northern Indian one so I guessed it was some kind of Dravidian language, so I was actually right on this one too!

[@augustineapdrai]

The third one is my native language, yes tamil. Second one I can pick out Hebrew sounding words. Thanks very interesting.

[@ALLHEART_]

Tamil is so cool.

[@augustinejordan6811]

Me too

[@feliz5919]

The second one is Amharic, because it is a semitic language it will have some Hebrew sounding words.

[@manga626]

It is that famous Sun Tv anchor.

[@mjaneroberts3215]

This is a great series, you should definitely keep it up. Of all the series like this one, yours is the clearest and most concise. You pack a lot of sound information into a small time. I've learned a lot.

[@veritasardens6547]

I am from Tamil Nadu in South India, Tamil is my mother tongue and I am very pleased to hear it being played in the "guess the mystery language series". Overall I love your "guess the mystery language series" Paul, very interesting to make guesses on the identity of the languages being played from even from a neutral language learner's perspective.

[@carlesg0n]

hello! could you please make more in depth videos of less popular languages like catalan or tamil? although they aren't spoken a lot they do have huge historical and cultural backgrounds. keep it up by the way, i love your vids!

[@nayeemibrahim2543]

Charlyjaja well...tamil is spoken by more than 70 mil people :)

[@rodograbby6268]

Tamil is a very popular language. It’s spoken quite significantly

[@karakorum1987]

Dear Paul. I like a lot your videos which I find very interesting and funny. I am Italian and since you like to study languages I would like to let you know that you read the word "scrivere" with a wrong pronunciation. Flexion is very important in my language and the word "scrivere" has the accent on the first syllable, not on the second one like you pronounced it, which sounds wrong to me. I hope this absolutely friendly comment is useful for your own interest and I encourage you to make a video dedicated to Italian with the same passion and skill you had for your previous videos.

[@Langfocus]

Got it, thank you!

[@Kleo3392]

If you knew Latin, this wouldn't be a problem haha! "scrībere"

[@vuurniacsquarewave5091]

How come English doesn't seem to prefer an anglicised "scrībere" for writing, but uses "to write" more frequently? "Scrib" or something along those lines exists in every language I speak as a non-native speaker: En: to scribe (actually more prominent as "describe") De: schreiben Nl: schrijven

[@AussieAlexander]

Scribble.

[@Jonas-1A]

Scrabble!

[@Nightey]

1. was definitely Catalan. At first I thought it to be Portuguese but then I heard the word "eixample" or something like that which is a borough of Barcelona so that gave it away. 2. I had no idea at the beginning. First it sounded lika a Caucasian language then it sounded Arabic but as soon as it came to the reading examples I knew from the script that it was Amharic. 3. I knew it was an Indian language but was torn between Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. Unfortunately I can't differenciate them but the script gave it away too because the first two are written in a more circular way as far as I can remember.

[@rohitchaoji]

Nightey Pretty much the same with the sequence of guesses. I too thought that the first one was Portuguese at first. And also guessed the second one to be a Caucasian language initially. I'm Indian so I could guess Tamil but only after looking at the script.

[@harinimarchadi1204]

Nightey I can tell between the languages bc my parents speak Kannada and Tamil but in different situations

[@YIIMM]

"ix" produces a "sh" sound so Eixample is pronounced "uh-SHAM-pluh"

[@Mav12able]

Harini Marchadi I could tell it was A Dravidian language because some of my family from India speaks Malayalam when they don't want anyone to understand them

[@martalli]

Kannada and Telugu utilize nearly the same alphabet, which is based on the Brahmi script once used for Sanskrit, much as Devanagri was used for Sanskrit. Telugu and Kannada have a slightl stylistic difference in the base of the letter for 'v'/'w' and that element is used in some other letters such as "m". The letter for 'kh' is fairly different between the two, lookin like a capital Latin 'S', whereas the Kannada 'kh' is much more curly. The difference in 'v' I think is mainly style, whereas the 'kh' is a bigger difference. Maybe a Kannadiga or Telugu could weigh in on that.

[@Jowyerv]

Hey Paul! i've watched all 3 of your guess language videos, and i got 1 correct, which is the last language "Tamil"! I'm from Malaysia, I heard and learned a little of this language since i was small. and i could tell straight away without guessing!

[@ndjubilant]

The third is Tamil! before you said it, My husband's language so I hear it a lot. I am slowly picking it up.

[@trafo60]

Am I the only one who couldn't hear the Amharic audio?

[@beyzanr]

trafo60 no I couldn't either

[@Purple_Box]

trafo60 Nope. I didn't hear it either until the written sentences appeared.

[@tsnowsill]

couldnt hear it either

[@albgardis]

No, I also didn't hear any sound of Amharic. Only with the written sentences it came back.

[@JoeyWolfDee]

I heard it.

[@JohnnyJacobGO]

1) Catalan 2) Georgian (because it had Arabic influences and the weird script) 3) Tamil (I speak Tamil, spoken in Kerala, India which is the closest language to Tamil)

[@अजिङ्क्यगोखले]

I think you wanted to write Malayalam in the brackets.

[@Gunit935]

Nobody really knows where Georgian scripts coming from, and it's definitely not Arabic. It's modeled on Greek. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_scripts

[@aturninthegameof...4584]

1. Galician, I knew it was an Ibero-Romance language, but wasn't Spanish or Portuguese 2. Amharic, the writing system gives it away. 3. Tamil, I have a Tamil friend who sometimes speaks a bit of it, and the mystery language sounded like Tamil.

[@marccapdevila4589]

Catalan is not a Ibero-romance language is a Occitano-romance

[@RichShama]

Thank God at least I have been able to guess one language of your three videos. And that is the last one of third video and that is Tamil. I am indian but from northern side. But I can recognise to some extent while hearing our major four south Indian language. The sample given by you lead me to either Malayalam or Tamil and afterwards to Tamil as it doesn't contain even a single word from Sanskrit but Malayalam contains. And the very presence of RUMBA helped me in pointing exactly as Tamil. Love your videos. Thanks a lot for making such good ones.

[@zonagravedad]

Hi Paul! The spoken samples of the first language are not exactly catalan but valencian ( catalan dialect spoken in Valencia area, although the consideration as dialect or language has political influences ). Grammar and vocabulary are 95% like catalan ( they say "per favor" and not "si us plau" ) and the pronunciation is like a mix between catalan and spanish ( like speaking catalan with spanish accent ), so it's a bit easier to understand to spanish speakers Keep up the good work!

[@martinkunev9911]

I got all three. For the first two I needed the written form. For the third I got a little lucky. Just from listening, I thought the first was spanish, but then I saw that x is pronounced /ʃ/ and also some big similarities with french. When I was listening to the second, it seemed similar to arabic and hebrew, but not quite so my first thought was maltese (as I thought I heard some latin words). Once I saw the writing, it was clear. The third one was obviously an indian language (because of the retroflex consonants). Since I didn't identify indo-european cognates and it didn't sound like hindi, it had to be a dravidian language. It could have been either Tamil or Telugu, but I got lucky.

[@ЮрийГагарин-з3ц]

1. Portuguese(because it is very similar with spanish, but has more "sh" sounds 2. Amharic(Ethiopean). At first i thoght arabic, but after you showed me the letters, i recognized amharic. It has some similar letters with hebrew and russian 3. Bengali... sounded very similar

[@yashagrawal88]

Bengali sounds very different from Tamil to me. Bengali has a lot of use of 'o' and 'sh' while Tamil has a lot of use of retroflex 't' and 'd', and 'am'.

[@diecosta1]

Exact same for me for 2 and 3, but I got Català right because I'm Brazilian and can speak spanish and french.

[@wizzerd229]

Catalan sounds like an italian speaking spanish

[@adityasasidharan6583]

Catalan sounded more like Portuguese to me

[@rlmartinez26]

Zeke m To me it's like a hybrid of Spanish and French I speak both and understand Català about 85%

[@wizzerd229]

Raúl Martínez Castañeda tbf i speak no romance languages

[@boium.]

It sounds like spanish but I knew it wasn't that so I guessed portuguese.

[@paubosch7261]

No, that is the Argentinian accent.

[@samuelrodriguez8008]

Hi @Langfocus.. i`m from Peru and I speak spanish, english, portuguese (Brazil) and catalan. I'm glad you put the catalan language in the first audio because I'm learning it and it's very cool that you did remember it because it's not very known. Please, make a video explaining the catalan language because I found it very interesting and it's a mix of italian, french, spanish, english and portuguese. Thanks!

[@spencerkieft6021]

Amharic script looks so cool. I would even hang it on my wall as artwork.

[@kimchiyatra9026]

I knew the third one is Tamil because I could understand it :P

[@Langfocus]

That always helps! :)

[@alwaysuseless]

I think that's called cheating. ;-)

[@brainard8537]

I only knew it was Tamil from the text it showed

[@thnidu]

Swegimus Zeffimus Me too.

[@marcellotenarta5233]

Me too

[@nir913]

my guesses: 1) Spanish all thanks to emphasise on rrrr. 2) Arabic due to the tone/sound. 3) Tamil because I am an Indian Da!! But I do not understand it and I also recognized the script though I cannot read it.

[@trancemaxmusic3746]

The first one is Catalan or Valenciano. Come on I live in the Valencian region in Spain!!!

[@KingTapyrr]

Maxwell carty Yo tambien! Vivo en Alicante, tú?

[@mlee-w664]

Maxwell carty ¡Sevilla aquí!

[@tonipaternina9625]

I was going to answer the same thing but then the written examples were more Eastern Catalan, so I guessed he was making no distinction between the dialects :)

[@mohammadabdulfarooqi3068]

Viva la espania

[@PrenonNon0]

Jo senc valencià apitxat

[@gauravradioactive]

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

[@e.l.663]

1/ I first thought of Galician as it mixes Spanish and Portuguese, but I guessed Catalan when I saw the written samples. 2/ I would have said Somalian or Ethiopian as I used to hear it a lot with people from this country. (I live in Calais). It made me think to Arabic when I heard it, but the written samples helped me again. 3/ The audio sample got me lost! I knew it was from Asia though. Then I would've said a Thai-Laotian-related language but I didn't know which exactly. Thanks for this video!

[@swapnil3718]

1. Spanish because it sounded spanish. 2. No idea but sounded like arabic but weird script maybe some african language. 3. Tamil. Have heard and seen the script before.

[@Tuchulu]

I guessed the first one, because it is my native language. By the way you used the pro-independence flag (la estelada) instead of the official flag (la senyera)

[@Tuchulu]

after reading the comments I realize you had already realized that. Apologies.

[@PrenonNon0]

« Aquesta estelada blava te la guardes, és sa mateixa merda que Espanya però amb mes barres » Josep Valtònyc ;p

[@atavoidturk9025]

i guessed occitan

[@danameyy]

I knew Amharic by the writing system because I had a babysitter from Ethiopia, and with the transliteration I saw cognates with Hebrew!

[@pumba3368]

I'm so glad you included Tamil in your language video because I speak Tamil too :)

[@anaelhonings8683]

2/3 this time: 1- Sounds close to Spanish, I knew it was "the other big language" from Spain then when I saw it written, it reminded me of the backboards in Ibiza... where they speak Catalan! 2- Sounds a little bit like Arabic to my ears but very different from what I hear when Moroccan or Algerian people speak... I had no guessing until I saw it written and I was instantly like "this is the ethiopian language!!!" because I discovered several ethiopian musicians on cassettes last year and saw these beautiful and intriguing writings :-) 3- Sounds like an asian language, probably close to India (because a way to pronounce the letter "d" like when 1st generation imigrants from India or Pakistan speak English. Love this accent, by the way!) But I spoted countries more like Nepal ou Bhoutan not Sri Lanka. You got me on that one! ;-D

[@OohSugarCrumbs]

Amharic was really interesting to hear, Ithought at first it sounded Greek-ish and then it transitioned to Arabic-ish. Languages are cool.

[@CarLos-mf1fv]

1-Catalan(Valencian dialect)

[@CarLos-mf1fv]

2-Malasian

[@CarLos-mf1fv]

3-Hindi

[@garirry]

First, I thought that it was the Romanian language. After reading the script, it didn't seem like it though so I stayed neutral and really didn't have any idea of what it was. For the second one, it didn't sound very similar to any language I know, but after reading the script, I immediately guessed it was Amharic as I don't think any other language uses the script. For the third one, it didn't sound like any language I've heard of either, but I did know that the script pretty much guaranteed it was a south asian language, though I didn't know which one because I don't quite know the script differences between them.

[@chengyanslc]

The second language sounds very pleasing...

[@frankb2659]

1-catalan 2-amhari, when I heard the Salaam and semitic phonemes, and the writing confirmed it. 3-Some Indian language. When I saw the writing I knew it was dravidian though.

[@engstromresearch9895]

I guessed right on catalan. first i thought portuguese but I heard Una so I thought some other very similar romance

[@engstromresearch9895]

romance language*

[@patrickhodson8715]

You know that you can edict comments, right?

[@patrickhodson8715]

edit*

[@LextrickZombies]

+Patrick Hodson Please tell me that you did this on purpose

[@engstromresearch9895]

idc

[@rhyanbennett2629]

1) I don't know: it's romance but I'm not sure what 2) it's a bit like Hebrew and Arabic, but I don't know what 3) Christ, that's fast! some Indian language due to the script

[@evilmorty1440]

1 is Italian.

[@rhyanbennett2629]

Daniel Rocha heh, good one

[@brainard8537]

The moment i saw the written part for the 2nd example, i knew it was some sort of African language like Berber or Ethiopian

[@NobbiMD]

There is no Ethiopian per se. A number of different languages are used there. Of course you were right with the location.

[@vladmonolit7357]

1. Catalan. I guessed it because it sounded very similar to spanish without being completely spanish haha 2. At first I thought of a Semitic languages (which Amharic actually is) but then I hesitated and even thought of Armenian.. So yeah.. 3. I guessed it was a language from India mostly based on the pronunciation of the fourth sample I think.. It had that Indian style even though it's not hindi and indo-european

[@陈一搏-v3q]

I realized the second is related with Hebrew or Arabic, because the first word is "selam", sounds like "salam" in Arabic or "shalom" in Hebrew.

[@reidom99]

The audio of the first language is Valencian, and the written examples are Catalan, it's true that are very similar, but in Spain we consider them two different languages. (Btw congratulations for this interesting channel ;)

[@pablochusky8632]

1. That's definitely catalan. I'm spanish so I can recognise it easily. Also be careful, you have used the separatist flag for ilustrating the language. That would get some people mad. 2. That sounds between slavic and arabic. I would say persian or some language of the Caucasus. 3. Well, that is something from Central Asia. Maybe kazakh?

[@toucaninterieur8011]

At the begining I also thought it was russian, but I recognized "salam".

[@aerialpunk]

I thought it sounded a little Slav-ish too :P

[@blx5]

Chusky venty Tienes razón, pero esa bandera representa al menos al 50% de los catalanes, por lo que tampoco está mal su uso.

[@pablochusky8632]

Pablo Cacho No, si yo no soy de los que van a ofenderse. Pero esa bandera tiene un significado más político que cultural. Pero esa es mi opinión.

[@blx5]

Chusky venty Concuerdo (aunque prácticamente todo tiene un fuerte significado político) y tampoco he insinuado que te ofendiese :p

[@sofiaromerogarcia5241]

I love tamil language! It's the best language ever!

[@nithssh]

It seems like you're not a Tamil person, so can you tell me why you tell so? It's interesting to see a possible European show this much interest in this distant language.

[@manikandan_ip]

Thank you. That is my mother tongue😍

[@FenceThis]

It comes handy if you're a Tamil

[@anwar_razlan]

hahaha because i live in malaysia, i know the third language was tamil.....

[@manifestasisanubari]

Same here! XD

[@anwar_razlan]

manifestasisanubari which part are you from?

[@anwar_razlan]

manifestasisanubari shah alam, selangor

[@manifestasisanubari]

Polyglot?

[@anwar_razlan]

manifestasisanubari what?

[@youraveragebreakfastcereal5285]

My guesses: 1) Catalan 2) Ethiopian...I guess that's not a language, but I have seen the alphabet around Ethiopian restaurants 3) I guessed a language spoken in Kerala (I forgot the language was called Malayalam) but Tamil is right next door! Fantastic video concept 🤙🤙

[@DreamingSpanish]

1- Catalan of course! One of my two native tongues. 2- ??? I thought some variety of Arabic until I saw the weird script. 3- Marathi? Wrong

[@nestycb6702]

Im Spanish so I guessed Catalonian right. Im also glad you used the independence flag as every region shoud be able to choose their own parlament.

[@DimiDzi]

Nesty CB lo entendí pero no supe que idioma fue este y solo supe que tiene algo en común y pensé que es algo del mundo nuevo

[@redouanebendjama6028]

1 yeah Catalan 2 Persian 😕 3- somewhere in india

[@seid3366]

Amharic = Persian? Never heard of that.

[@KUINWORLD]

"இன்பத்தேன்(தமிழ் ) வந்து பாயுது காதினிலே " - பாரதியார் Thank you brother.My language always unique #TAMIL

[@SatyaVenugopal]

Love this series! More please? :)

[@madcapprof]

I had spent some time in Catalonia, have a long time from Addis-Ababa and my mother tongue is Tamil. What a conicidence.

[@ailbheskyfeather174]

1) Catalan, or maybe Occitan? 2) Sounds like Amharic? 3) Sounds like a language from Southern India... Tamil maybe?

[@Langfocus]

Good guesses!

[@mantictac]

1. Basque 2. Amharic 3. Tamil

[@rao803]

What has to do spanish?

[@Spinna720]

1: Catalan (i got it right because i'm spanish) 2:Some eastern african language 3:Laosian

[@Spinna720]

that is what i guessed

[@Bloodchief5]

Random Man i thought number 3 was laosian aswell.

[@ezioproductions7070]

It's not Laosian, it's Laotian, I think, could be wrong though.

[@captaindeadpool4357]

Bloodchief5 i guessed it to be a south-east asian language but can't say witch one

[@kwcy92]

Laotian is a tonal language

[@nerfprate]

I love how for ever single one I've guessed within 1 country of where it's spoken, but every single one I've gotten wrong.

[@AugustusAsgeir]

1. Basque, 2. Ahmaric, sounded like Persian a bit to me but the script helped me out the most 3. Nepali? Idk it tripped me up

[@WhiteScorpio2]

1. Spanishy Italian, so, maybe Catalan? I was right! 2. The writing system betrayed Amharic. The spoken example only told me that's it's a language of a Muslim nation (salaam). 3. So, it's an Indian language, but not Hindi or Urdu. I'll vote Sinhalese. Oh, it's Tamil. I was somewhat close, at least geographically.

[@yashagrawal88]

Ethiopia is majorly Christian.

[@Crysis97]

Ethiopia was one of the first countries on earth to become a Christian nation. Long before Europe.

[@SgtPwnVids]

WhiteScorpio2 cool tip about differentiating Sinhalese, the script has very very few straight lines because it was originally pressed onto leaves, and curled lines would not cause the leaves to split

[@cicero1178]

Crysis97 Ok? we don't care

[@Crysis97]

Cicero You do care. Or you wouldn't have answered me dumbfuck. Besides, I hate people like you. Does it feel good now? You are a mean person.

[@SudurYggdrasil]

Aquesta llengua és el català!!!!!

[@PrenonNon0]

Català valencià apitxat (precisament xD)

[@Alex-wj1vz]

hahaha the flag of Catalonia thank you for supporting the independence Paul

[@Langfocus]

That was unintentional. I don't know anything about the independence issue.

[@saamypsg]

Wow Tamil. My mother tongue... have been longing for very long time to see my language in your videos ... Thanks Paul :)

[@TijmensAviation]

2:12 My right ear really enjoyed this part

[@Farfromhere001]

I LOVE THESE!!!

[@Langfocus]

Cool! Please share them, they don't get many views. :)

[@Farfromhere001]

Shared in the Ethnobotanical Conservation Organization (Anthropology and Ethnobotany organization) on FB and other sites!

[@Orikron]

1- I'll say Catalan because that sounds close to Portuguese and Catalan is essentially a mix of old Portuguese and Spanish. 2- This one sounds Arabic but with less "R" sounds so I'll say Persian 3-Alright, this sounds Asian so I'll say some kind of Indian language.

[@TheNYVSC]

Álvaro Lopes actually Catalan doesn't have nothing to do with mediaeval Galician-Portuguese, but it is related to Occitan

[@asZ93]

Álvaro Lopes catalan sounds close to anything but portuguese. Maybe italian/french/spanish...

[@HeAndrRoiz]

There are actually a lot of sounds in Catalan that are closer to Portuguese than to Castilian, since the latter is actually less conservative when compared to its medieval version. Other Iberian languages didn't have such a significant sound change. If you search for Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish), you'll also note that it sounds more like Portuguese than Castilian, eventhough the language is actually derived from the last one.

[@OohSugarCrumbs]

As a Portuguese national I can tell you Catalan sounds a lot more like Portuguese than Castillian.

[@TheNYVSC]

OohSugarCrumbs as a Galician national I can tell you no one said that Catalan couldn't sound like Portuguese, well, It can sound whatever your ears want, but Catalan will never be (as the main comment says) a mixture between Portuguese and Spanish, because it's not.

[@AnDivroer]

There seems to be a problem with the Amharic sample, I couldn't here it at all!

[@lanahanbrian0]

Same here

[@marwanelmounajjed]

me too

[@sleepy314]

Maybe it is fixed, I could see it.

[@humayun891]

An Divroer same here

[@luke125]

My favorite (discontinued) series on this channel.

[@roaae4]

I was close enough to all the languages I heard. I'm an Arab and although the Ethiopian language as you said is not intelligible with my language but the tone and the spirit of it made me sure that it is from Semitic family. I really enjoyed this video thank you.

[@cadr003]

It was either Catala or Romanian for me

[@cadr003]

nvrmind i saw si us plau and i know its catalan

[@murugesanmp5869]

i am Tamil

[@smokingredmoon]

2nd language didn't have sound :(

[@Langfocus]

It doesn't play properly from a smartphone speaker for some reason, but it does play with headphones or on a computer.

[@LynnXternal]

I guessed the third one right, because I'm a native speaker of a language spoken slightly north of the place the third language is spoken in! I didn't get the first two though, but I guessed their geographic regions properly, if that counts. It's interesting, because languages in particular regions tend to be so similar. And colonization explains how languages "moved" out of their home region to other parts of the world, and also influenced other languages. Do you have any videos about language drift?

[@lamrof]

The word ABUGIDA was taken from the Ethiopian Ge'ez literary books and the Amharic/Ge'ez character chart is called Abugida through its history of 2000 years.

[@mementomori5748]

do a video on somali language please

[@mr.coolmug3181]

You mean the Somalian dialect of Arabic?

[@mementomori5748]

no i mean the somali language

[@mr.coolmug3181]

Saed Sulayman I thought it was a form of Arabic. Nevermind.

[@mementomori5748]

it okay but the two language are very similar some poeple think we speak arabic but we dont

[@mr.coolmug3181]

Saed Sulayman AHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XDDDDDD XOOOO X00000

[@the-thane]

Catalan. It's like the French gave the Spanish their writing system. Isn't this that Ethiopian language? I can't remember its name, but the writing looks like that language's Abugida. It looks like Syriac? It looks like it has an aleph at the end of one of the words. It's distinctive because it looks like a snake.

[@the-thane]

First two were good, the last was way off. Interesting, I don't think I've ever heard of that language!

[@lakshkrishpillai6459]

மர்ம மொழியா...?நீங்க video போட்டா எங்கமொழி மர்மமொழியா...?

[@DimiDzi]

Laksh KrishPillai аз не ти разбирам

[@rajkumar-ff6iu]

இவங்க சொன்னா உண்மை ஆகுமா நண்பா

[@MrsPrem2405]

той каза, че тамми не е мистериозен език

[@BruceWayne-ii5th]

Dude ennathu ithu, "Mystery" is not an insult, chill out LK Pillai

[@darkgreninja8349]

Apparon muppathi oru likes vera

[@frandm1987]

1.- As a Spaniard who watches the news, I immediately identified it as Catalan. 2.- I had no clue from any of the samples, even being capable of identifying Hebrew and (probably) Arabic from spoken samples. 3.- I only dared to guess it was a language from India from the written sample.

[@0312Matthew]

Could you make a video on the Walloon language(s)? Not Picard, but the languages spoken in Namur, Charleroi, and Liège before WW2! Thank you so much! I think I'm the only person on my continent who wants to learn them, and they could use more support and documentation before they inevitably die off. I know many native speakers who would likely be glad to help you out!

[@weirdlanguageguy]

1. Some sort of romance 2. Amharic, sounded a bit like Hebrew and I recognized the script. 3. bengal or some sort of Indian because of the script

[@csatimaci]

I guessed Catalan because I remembered how it was mixed Spanish / French, I never heard of Amharic before, guessed Arameic, Tamil was a complete mystery for me :) thanks for these challenges, I look forward to guessing more Mystery Languages! :)

[@zweigackroyd7301]

I did reasonably well this time, guessing Catalan, Amharic, and southern India. Amharic I only got by seeing it written, the samples confirmed my geographic guess for Tamil. As always, good fun

[@Jokyl989]

I hope you make more of these! an awesome series!

[@uthinkpickles]

Just have to say that the Tamil example would only be heard either on the news, when someone is making a speech, or when one is reading aloud. Spoken varies by region, but generally sounds vastly different from the above example.

[@michaels6944]

1) Catalan - have lived in Spain. Knew as soon as I heard "avui" 2) some Arabic-related language but isn't Arabic 3) Tamil - knew it was in India due to the tapped "d" and "th" sounds, could tell it was Tamil based on script

[@MaryaHach]

1. Portuguese. Because it sounded like spanish, but it wasn't. 2. Amharic. I understood it was semitic from the listening part, then the script gave me the final clue. 3. Bengali. I have to admit, I just picked a random Indian language that wasn't urdu or hindi. By the way, I didn't know that Tamil and Bengali have different writing systems.

[@MauroCicognini]

1. Having been several times in Barcelona, it was easy to recognize Catalan. 2. No clue hearing it. I recognized the script as Ethiopian (but I had no idea Ethiopia had so many languages). 3. The sound was clearly from Southern India or Sri Lanka. I couldn't say it was Tamil rather than one of the other languages spoken in that region, though.

[@margueritedepompadour7031]

1. Got it right, it was just a bit weird spanish and since i speak spanish i knew it only could be catalan 2. No clue at all 3. No clue while hearing but witz script I knew it was indian and guessed right it was Tamil

[@danielpaterson6824]

For the first it was too easy... I'm currently living in Valencia and Valencian ranges from being either a sister language, dialect or accented variety of Catalan, depending on whom you ask. So unfair advantage since I see it on signs everywhere and am trying to learn it! Number two, I had no idea, other than that it did sound Semitic until I saw the alphabet. So far as I know, Amharic is the only language to use that alphabet! And for number three I guessed Bengali because it sounded like it belonged to the Indian subcontinent, but the alphabet clearly wasn't Hindi. Upon looking it up I found that Bengali isn't even Dravidian, so oops :P Thanks again for this series, Paul and I hope you keep it up!