World Languages A-Z

Based on the clues, name these world languages starting with each letter.

"Most-spoken" refers to the number of people who speak it natively.

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Last updated: March 29, 2022

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First submitted	March 20, 2019
Times taken	81,926
Average score	65.4%
Rating	4.94

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	Clue	Language
A	Language of the Quran	Arabic
B	Language of northern Spain not closely related to any others	Basque
C	Variety of Chinese spoken in the Hong Kong region	Cantonese
D	Afrikaans is derived from this language	Dutch
E	Created in 1887, it was intended to be a universal language	Esperanto
F	What Paavo Nurmi spoke. Known in its own language as Suomi.	Finnish
G	"Eins, zwei, drei" is how you'd count to three	German
H	Official language of Israel	Hebrew
I	The only Celtic language to be an official language of a country	Irish
J	Can be written in Kana, Hiragana, and Kanji scripts	Japanese
K	Official language of Cambodia	Khmer
L	Language of ancient Rome	Latin
M	Official language of Madagascar	Malagasy
N	Has the most speakers of any Native American language in the United States	Navajo
O	Most commonly-spoken language in Ethiopia	Oromo
P	This language of India and Pakistan is the most spoken that is not the official language of any country	Punjabi
Q	The main language of the Incan Empire, still spoken today	Quechua
R	Romance language spoken in a certain country in Eastern Europe	Romanian
S	Lingua franca of Tanzania and Kenya	Swahili
T	Dominant language of Anatolia	Turkish
U	Spoken in the city of Lviv	Ukrainian
V	Most spoken language in Indochina	Vietnamese
W	Variety of Chinese spoken in the Shanghai region	Wu
X	Nelson Mandela's mother tongue	Xhosa
Y	Jewish language that developed in Eastern Europe	Yiddish
Z	Most spoken language in South Africa	Zulu

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61 Comments

+29

Level 77

Jun 28, 2019

Irish isn't anywhere close to being the most widely spoken Celtic language. There are almost ten times as many Welsh speakers.

Level ∞

Jun 28, 2019

I didn't fact check that one. You may be right. The numbers for native Welsh and Irish speakers seem very inflated. According to Wikipedia, 19% of Wales speaks Welsh natively. I don't think so. In any case, changed the clue so there can be no objections.

Level 50

Aug 26, 2019

Welsh is an official language of Wales.

+28

Level 65

Jan 22, 2020

Wales is not a "country" as per jetpunk definition

Level 90

Mar 24, 2026

Wales is a country. It's just not a sovereign country.

+20

Level 58

Apr 2, 2020

I’m really puzzled why you don’t think that is a likely statistic- it actually sounds quite low to me and there are definitely far more Welsh speakers than that but I guess not all of them speak it as their first language. I certainly know a lot of people who didn’t learn English until they started school and it remains very much a second language to Welsh even as adults. Wales may not be very big but a significant part of the population does use Welsh.

Level 43

Sep 21, 2020

That number certainly seems low to me, there are many places in western Wales that English isn't spoken at all.

Level 58

Sep 9, 2023

There is nowhere in Wales where English isn't spoken. It is predominantly spoken in the West, but all Welsh speakers are bilingual. The figure of 18-20% fluent speakers in the total population of Wales is accurate and in line with census data. Incidentally, I came from a village that was 80% first language Welsh.

+18

Level 77

Jun 29, 2019

You might not think so but there's little doubt. The figures for Welsh are very closely monitored and have been for years so they're as accurate as any of these things can be. If anything Irish is one of the least widely spoken Celtic languages. There are about three times more speakers of Breton. Other than Scottish Gaelic the only Celtic languages with fewer speakers than Irish are the resurrected ones of Manx and Cornish.

Level ∞

Jun 29, 2019

19% of people in Wales speak Welsh at home? I'm skeptical but willing to believe. I did hear a couple old guys speaking in Welsh when I visited Llandeilo.

+20

Level 77

Jun 29, 2019

Yes QM - especially in mid, West and North Wales. In some areas up to 70% speak it as their first language. You're not the first to sneer at Welsh language and culture and you won't be the last, but Ry'n ni yma o hyd, er gwaetha pawb a phopeth. And you're going to have to change the question again. The Welsh Language Acts of 1967 and 1993 establish Welsh as an official de jure language in Wales. There's an equivalent Act for Scottish Gaelic.

+21

Level ∞

Jun 30, 2019

Hey I'm not sneering at Welsh culture. Good for you guys! I think it's cool. But the question will remain unless Wales (or Scotland) becomes an independent country.

Level 86

Sep 7, 2023

This is still wrong though. Welsh and Scottish Gaelic are official UK languages, just not across the entire country. The UK government recognises them as official within the parts of the country where they're spoken, and conducts official business using them. Irish is the only Celtic language used officially across the *entirety* of an independent country, but the others are still officially languages recognised by the government of such a country, so the question as phrased remains wrong.

Level 61

Sep 7, 2023

@CyborgBee Except you still can't speak Welsh during official proceedings in the House of Commons. Many countries designate languages as official on a regional level; the UK isn't special in that regard.

Level 68

Apr 26, 2024

@CyborgBee That's called a regional language, not an official language. Punjabi is a regional language too.

Level 86

Jun 30, 2019

The south is quite anglicized, but around Anglesey for example I've heard almost only Welsh spoken in the street.

Level 68

Apr 26, 2024

So Anglesey's less Anglicized? lol

Level 49

Jul 27, 2019

^ Yeah, my experience of North Wales is that Welsh is widely spoken. I noticed a lot of signs that have Welsh first, followed by English, which furthers this point.

Level 72

Jul 29, 2019

I have been to Caernarfon, where people seemed to be speaking mostly English. But it was at Easter weekend, when there is a lot of tourism there. I have seen statistics showing that especially in Anglesey people often speak Welsh. I wouldn't take the order languages are in on street signs as so much of an indicative factor though, as Welsh is written first on signs in almost all the parts of Wales I have been to (maybe not all - I don't think I have been to Cardiff for example).

Level 61

Jul 3, 2020

If it is 19%, I'm just surprised it's that low. I suppose there are lot more people in south Wales than in the north, where it's most spoken. I would have guessed that the figure would be at least 25%.

+14

Level 75

Jun 30, 2019

A point worth to remember is that Sibelius grew up in a Swedish-speaking home and didn't learn Finnish until in school. Yes, he spoke Finnish, but it wasn't his first language.

Level 74

Jul 27, 2019

Hear hear

Level 68

Jul 27, 2019

kuule kuulla

Level 78

Jul 27, 2019

But it also says it’s called suomi in it’s own language

Level ∞

Mar 29, 2022

I have replaced Jean Sibelius with Paavo Nurmi.

Level 66

Sep 6, 2023

Should also replace Suomi (=the country) with suomi (=the language).

+22

Level 66

Jul 27, 2019

Odessa is mainly Russian speaking. The clue is 'spoken in the city of Odessa' - so technically it is correct, just a strange choice of city. I expect Ukranian is spoken in London too, but it would be weird to use that as the clue! Lviv would probably be a better option.

Level 61

Jul 3, 2020

I had this exact thought.

Level 72

Mar 29, 2022

I think the clue is alright, it doesn't claim that Ukrainian is the most spoken language there and Lviv is a little more obscure/less known. Realistically, if you were to guess, your options would be Ukrainian or Russian and the letter narrows things down.

Level ∞

Mar 29, 2022

Replaced Odessa with Lviv.

Level 71

Jan 12, 2023

I suspect Russian is on a steep decline nowadays in Odessa. Also, I think it's now 'Odesa' with certain translations morphing from Russian to Ukrainian (eg, Kyiv not Kiev).

Level 63

Jul 27, 2019

Nice to see Esperanto getting some love.

Level 60

Jan 14, 2020

I guessed Ebonics

Level 59

Jul 28, 2019

Can't wait for part two

Level 57

Jul 29, 2019

Uhm..I missed only Ukrainian. Because the dominant language in Odessa is Russian. I know i am dumb, since i didn't think of Ukrainian, but still, the first language that comes to my mind when hearing Odessa is Russian.

Level 68

Apr 26, 2024

Did you have like 10 seconds left or something???

+10

Level 74

Aug 10, 2019

A little correction: It should say katakana instead of kana. Just kana is the umbrella term for katakana and hiragana.

Level 42

Aug 22, 2019

Or just write kana and kanji.

Level 55

Jun 24, 2020

Couldn't type Omoro

Level 55

Jul 3, 2020

100% Now!

+20

Level 71

Oct 1, 2020

Wow, was thinking Ethiopia's most spoken is Amharic.

Level 65

May 21, 2021

Same!

Level 74

Nov 16, 2021

The Amharic ethnic group dominate business, culture and politics in the country, but the Oromo are the most numerous by a small margin!

Level 44

Oct 17, 2020

Accept Malagasi for Malagasy?

Level 82

Feb 21, 2021

I live in the Wu-speaking region of China!

Level 78

Feb 25, 2022

Xhosa...not Xosha. Dangit. I was racking my brain trying to come up with another south african X language.

Level 68

Apr 26, 2024

Xosha looks so, so wrong to me lol

Level 79

Mar 29, 2022

Missed Esperanto because I kept thinking it was Esperanzo for some reason, forgot Malagasy and Oromo

Level 51

Mar 29, 2022

Mild error - Sibelius was Finnish but he was part of the minority that speak Swedish. As is, the question is a tad misleading.

Level ∞

Mar 29, 2022

Fixed

Level 80

Mar 29, 2022

"Kana" in Japanese refers to any syllabic script, as opposed to kanji, which are logographic. The three scripts are hiragana (the most common), katakana (used to represent loan words, foreign names, neologisms and onomatopoeia), and kanji (Chinese characters used for names, but also plenty of common words, where they replace hiragana - in children's texts tiny hiragana referred to as furigana are often written above the kanji to help them sound them out). Hiragana and katakana are both forms of kana.

Level 44

Mar 29, 2022

Oromo is more spoken than Amharic?

Level 83

Mar 29, 2022

according to wiki - Oromo 33.8%, Amharic 29.3%

Level 64

Mar 29, 2022

Wonderful and super quiz

Level 63

May 20, 2022

ugh i need to stop taking jetpunk quizzes this close to midnight

what makes me say this? i missed ukrainian

25/26

Level 24

Mar 25, 2023

I got all of them! It's sad that many people have limited knowledge of languages in Africa.

Level 74

Aug 4, 2023

Yiddish developed in Central Europe, not Eastern Europe.

It's also quite similar to Bavarian.

Level 79

Sep 6, 2023

Just missed Oromo, assumed Amharic would be most spoken in Ethiopia since it's their official one

Level 68

Apr 26, 2024

Oromo is too

Level 54

Mar 17, 2025

26/26 on the first try, very proud of it. I only remembered Navajo with a few seconds to spare.

Level 40

Mar 25, 2025

English is much more popular

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