Language quiz

Here’s a recording of part of a song in a mystery language. Any ideas which language it is?

This entry was posted in Language, Music, Quiz questions.

12 Responses to Language quiz

  1. Dr. C.S. Lewis-Barrie, Ph.D. says:

    This is a dialect of Indo-Aryan. I hope you have the rights to reproduce music from the Xena: Warrior Princess soundtrack!

  2. Jonathan Katz says:

    Kurdish, perhaps?

  3. Daydreamer says:

    Though the structure of the words is obscured by the singing, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a Romance language. Maybe Sardinian?

  4. vautour says:

    The last bit sounds like ‘kon muncho alegria’ – Sephardic Spanish?

  5. Harris E. says:

    I’m about 99% it’s not ladino (“sephardic spanish”). As for a guess, it has a very middle-eastern quality- how about Pashto?

  6. d.m.falk says:

    I’ll go with Ladino. The middle-eastern feel is apropos for Moorish Spain, in which not only was there an Arabic culture flourishing on the Iberian penninsula, but under the Moors, the Spanish Jews also flourished. The Andalusian influence is still felt in modern Spanish and Latino culture.


  7. BG says:

    I had a feeling that it was either Romance or Indo-Aryan. Ladino seems to be a possibility.

  8. Podolsky says:


  9. Daydreamer says:

    Now that I’ve listened closely several times, I’m sure that the lyrics contain “ la madre…grande…a mi vista…que tu padre”.
    It’s hard to believe that so many spanish elements would have survived in Ladino, which nowadays seems to be spoken exclusively in Israel.
    So I go with Caló, the language of the Spanish Roma, who gave us the Flamenco.

  10. Simon says:

    The answer is Ladino. The song is a lullaby called Nani Nani sung by Yasmin Levy and comes from Youtube

  11. Evans Knight says:

    agh i love yasmin levy. i have more ladino music than any other language on my ipod. it’s so beautiful.

  12. BG says:

    It is very beatiful music.

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