# Which language is spoken in this video? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161 "2011-01-11T00:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/21 "2011-01-11T23:21:00Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > You do know, of course, that Roumanian is not a Slavic language; it is a Romance language like Spanish, French, etc. And Roumanian was in fact my first guess. Yes, but **Dan\_ch** (who speaks Romanian) confirmed that it wasn’t. **pulykamell** speaks Polish (I think?) and has therefore been able to confirm that it wasn’t a Slavic language. As for me, I have no idea. The start does sound somewhat Romance, and then it starts sounding Slavic, but apparently it’s not either. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/22 "2011-01-11T23:39:55Z")
Do they look like twins? Then maybe idioglossia. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/23 "2011-01-11T23:55:12Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > As for me, I have no idea. **The start does sound somewhat Romance,** and then it starts sounding Slavic, but apparently it’s not either. This is why when only partially paying attention, I was a few sentences in before realizing I was hearing non-english, thus my interest. Then the fact that it is taking so long to get a confirmation of what language it is ITSELF interests me, I wonder if these two girls are members of an [uncontacted peoples](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples), who just happen to have web access? 😛 > [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Do they look like twins? Then maybe idioglossia. Never heard of this, very interesting…but the girl who gets hit looks much older to me. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/24 "2011-01-12T00:14:13Z")
I’m surprised we haven’t figured this out already … must … know … language … ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/25 "2011-01-12T01:49:21Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that since he/she speaks Hungarian/Magyar, that he/she knows it’s not Slavic or even Indo-European. Yep. I’m not sure what Romanian even had to do with my post–it was already ruled out, so I wanted to rule out the rest of the major Eastern European languages. which left us with Slavic and Hungarian (Finno-Ugric) languages. Actually, I guess we have Baltic languages, too. For the record, I speak Polish and a smattering of Magyar (as well as bits and pieces of some other languages). I’m wondering if it is perhaps some Romani (Gypsy) dialect. I would think if it were Turkish, somebody would have confirmed it by now. But I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/26 "2011-01-12T02:07:03Z")
This is starting to bug me, though. There are little bits that do sound Hungarian, (like when the little girl starts singing) but I can’t quite make out the words. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/27 "2011-01-12T02:10:02Z")
cwPartner says Turkish or Hungarian (contradicting **pulykamell** ), definitely not Romanian or Albanian. I, too, am wondering if it’s Romani. Romani is ultimately related to Hindi, but speakers tend to borrow liberally from other languages spoken wherever they actually live. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/28 "2011-01-12T08:57:03Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > This is starting to bug me, though. There are little bits that do sound Hungarian, (like when the little girl starts singing) but I can’t quite make out the words. I just emailed the video to a native Hungarian speaker with kids and he says “definitely not Hungarian” so we can rule that out safely, I should think. ETA: Really disturbing video, BTW. For whatever reason, I didn’t find it amusing at all, and I’m pretty open to violent comedy. Maybe it’s because it’s kids. It’s just disturbingly sociopathic from my perspective. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/29 "2011-01-12T10:26:07Z")
A linguist friend of the Hungarian friend above writes the following: “It sounds like cypriot turkish but don’t quote me on that. I can’t really hear the syllables well enough.” So another vote leaning towards Turkish. Don’t we have Turkish speakers on this board? ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/30 "2011-01-12T17:11:59Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > ETA: Really disturbing video, BTW. For whatever reason, I didn’t find it amusing at all, and I’m pretty open to violent comedy. Maybe it’s because it’s kids. It’s just disturbingly sociopathic from my perspective. Interesting. I found it funny, perhaps because it made me think of my nieces, or me and my sister, bickering of some desirable shared resource. I imagine that the exchange, translated, would be found to go something like this: Little Girl: I wanna play on the computer! Bigger Girl: Later. LG: I wanna play on the computer! BG: Later! _(LG grabs at the computer)_ BG: Stop that. I’m using it. LG: I wanna play on it, I wanna, la la la la… Come oooonnnnnn! Stop hogging the computer! **SMACK!** I wanna… _(BG sighs, readjusts her headband and the computer)_ ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/31 "2011-01-12T17:37:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > ETA: Really disturbing video, BTW. For whatever reason, I didn’t find it amusing at all, and I’m pretty open to violent comedy. Maybe it’s because it’s kids. It’s just disturbingly sociopathic from my perspective. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the video is amusing, I don’t think a kid hitting another kid and making her cry is funny. It’s just the oddness of the language that I find really interesting. (Odd to me from my cultural/lingual background, of course). ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/32 "2011-01-12T17:51:28Z")
It sounds really close to [Brazilian] Portuguese or Spanish but it’s not… however there are only about 20 billion other Romance languages on the Iberian peninsula that could qualify. Galician maybe? Edited to add… maybe European Portuguese? ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/33 "2011-01-12T18:13:05Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > It sounds really close to [Brazilian] Portuguese or Spanish but it’s not… however there are only about 20 billion other Romance languages on the Iberian peninsula that could qualify. Galician maybe? Edited to add… maybe European Portuguese? It’s no form of Portuguese as far as I can tell (I speak Brazilian Portuguese). Of course, someone who learned English as their second language in the United States might claim that something like Yorkshire English (think “The Full Monty”) wasn’t English at all :). ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/34 "2011-01-12T21:34:36Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > It’s no form of Portuguese as far as I can tell (I speak Brazilian Portuguese). Don’t you think it sounds like a close cousin of Portuguese like Galician or something like that? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/35 "2011-01-12T21:59:36Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > Interesting. I found it funny, perhaps because it made me think of my nieces, or me and my sister, bickering of some desirable shared resource. I imagine that the exchange, translated, would be found to go something like this: > > Little Girl: I wanna play on the computer! > Bigger Girl: Later. > LG: I wanna play on the computer! > BG: Later! > _(LG grabs at the computer)_ > BG: Stop that. I’m using it. > LG: I wanna play on it, I wanna, la la la la… Come oooonnnnnn! Stop hogging the computer! **SMACK!** I wanna… > _(BG sighs, readjusts her headband and the computer)_ I suppose. Don’t mean to derail the main topic, but it just looked a lot more disturbing than typical sibling fighting. The big girl looked like she was hurt, not just sighing and readjusting her headband–I mean, she got a slap right upside the head, possibly the eardrum, which fucking hurts (and can be dangerous). And the way the little girl carried on with her song gleefully. The body language of the two just read really off to me. Anyhow, carry on with the language discussion. I don’t usually react this way to these types of videos, it’s just that this one gives me the chills, for whatever reason. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/36 "2011-01-12T23:54:37Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Actually, I guess we have Baltic languages, too. Not Baltic (Lithuanian or Latvian) either, as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/37 "2011-01-13T00:03:15Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Don’t you think it sounds like a close cousin of Portuguese like Galician or something like that? I think if it were any of the languages of Spain or Portugal, other than Basque, it would be identifiable as such (and partially comprehensible) to any Spanish or Portuguese speaker. Have we ruled out Albanian? Greek? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/38 "2011-01-13T01:01:10Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > I think if it were any of the languages of Spain or Portugal, other than Basque, it would be identifiable as such (and partially comprehensible) to any Spanish or Portuguese speaker. I’m not sure I would totally agree with that, specifically not that a speaker of Brazilian Portuguese would be able to understand Catalan or Galician without being told in advance what it was. I could swear I hear words like ‘gustas’ and ‘tanto’ and ‘tampoco’ and ‘bem’ in there. > [@](#): > > Have we ruled out Albanian? Greek? I’m pretty sure it’s not Albanian. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/39 "2011-01-13T21:17:47Z")
I don’t speak it, but I’m almost certain it’s Turkish. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161/40 "2011-01-13T21:34:32Z")
I’ve missed the edit window now, but just before the girl hits her sister, one of the words sounds like “küçük”, which is Turkish for “small”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-is-spoken-in-this-video/567161.md?page=3)