World Language General Knowledge #3

Can you answer these general knowledge questions about world languages?

Quiz idea: WolfCam

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Last updated: January 31, 2018

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First submitted	January 27, 2018
Times taken	57,290
Average score	68.4%
Rating	4.50

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Question	Answer
What language is an official language of 55 different countries?	English
What language is an official language of 29 different countries?	French
What was the most commonly-spoken language amongst Jews prior to WWII?	Yiddish
What Mediterranean sea-faring people invented the first alphabet?	The Phoenicians
What is the last letter of the Greek alphabet?	Omega
Which Greek letter looks like this: Δ?	Delta
What language is the Quran written in?	Arabic
What language, starting with Z, is the most commonly-spoken in South Africa?	Zulu
What country is the most linguistically diverse - with over 820 indigenous languages?	Papua New Guinea
What language includes the words Kahuna, Keiki, Honu, and ʻOhana?	Hawaiian
What playwright invented hundreds of words, including assassination and eyeball?	William Shakespeare
What comes next after eins and zwei?	Drei
In the Bible, what building angered God, causing him to curse humans with a "confusion of tongues"?	Tower of Babel
What language has given us place names such as Cwmystwyth and Llanfairpwllgwyngyll?	Welsh
What language/dialect is "Auld Lang Syne" written in?	Scots
What language, spoken in parts of Spain and France, is not closely related to any other living language?	Basque
What is the most commonly-spoken Native American language in the U.S.?	Navajo
From what language do the family names Kardashian and Sarkisian come from?	Armenian
What is the most commonly-spoken Slavic language?	Russian

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72 Comments

Level 9

Jan 27, 2018

I did surprisingly well (9/19) even though I don't know that much about languages.

Level 56

Jun 29, 2018

I got 9/19 too! (and also know nothing about languages)

Level 20

Feb 27, 2024

Me too

+11

Level 59

Feb 7, 2022

jhg HgtR lkjhg 14/19 ggZkjk,k nkjuZkkn Trrpt!

Level 58

May 9, 2022

same

+13

Level 95

Jan 27, 2018

You may want to clarify that Navajo is the most commonly-spoken Native American language *in the United States*.

Level ∞

Jan 28, 2018

Bone-headed mistake on my part - now fixed.

Level 54

Jan 31, 2024

Please add a yellow box

Level 71

Feb 26, 2024

Level 87

Jan 27, 2018

Would you accept "Phoenicians" without "The?"

Level ∞

Jan 28, 2018

We do

Level 85

Jan 28, 2018

And without S? Especially as just "Scot" is accepted.

Level ∞

Jan 29, 2018

Okay

Level 51

Jan 28, 2018

Huh, Sarkisian is Armenian? The more you know...

Level ∞

Jan 28, 2018

Bonus question: What mononymic celebrity was born with the last name Sarkisian?

Level 34

Jan 28, 2018

Cher

Level 59

Jan 28, 2018

could you accept Jiddish, too ?

Level 73

Jan 16, 2019

Exactly what i wanted to ask, if you'd accept jiddish

(though I dont exactly know why people ask if some stuff could please be accepted, it is not like it is gonna change your score after the fact...)

+10

Level 78

Feb 6, 2022

because we're providing feedback to the maker of the quiz so they can improve it for future takers...? jetpunk would be so much the worse if quiz takers couldn't leave suggestions in the comments, or if they chose not to since it wouldn't benefit them personally.

+10

Level 73

Jan 31, 2018

Eins and Zwei shouldn't be written with a first capital letter. Unlike nouns, the numbers in German are written lower case end to end.

Level ∞

Jan 31, 2018

I'll take your word for it. I changed the clue.

+13

Level 88

Feb 26, 2018

To be fair, Cymraeg should be accepted ;).

+14

Level 76

Mar 1, 2018

For reference, the full name of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. The name was created in the 19th century when residents of the town wanted to attract more tourists to the area, and it remains a popular place for people to visit and take photos next to the train station sign.

Other good Welsh place names include "Plwmp" and "Nantycaws" (which translates to "stream of cheese").

Level 88

Jun 29, 2018

+1 for "stream of cheese"

Level 58

Apr 19, 2018

Shakespeare did not invent "assasin". It's origins are in Arabic meaning something like an outcast. It came to Europe with the crusaders.

Level 83

Jun 19, 2018

I feel as if a lot of the words Shakespeare is credited with inventing were in fact just *recorded* for the first time by the playwright. A word can exist for a long time outside of written documents, and especially when you take into account the time at which he was writing.

Level 81

Jun 29, 2018

The clue doesn't say "assassin" it says "assassinate."

Level 71

Jul 3, 2018

Actually, it says "assassination". (Maybe QM changed it in the last few days...)

Level 81

Jul 5, 2018

Maybe. Anyway the point is taking a noun and turning it into verb (and then taking that verb and turning it back in to a noun) still counts as coining a new word if nobody has done that before.

Level 56

Jun 29, 2018

19/19 with 1'25 remaining. Maybe shorten the clock by 1 minute, or add more difficult questions.

+14

Level 75

Jun 29, 2018

Need the extra time for all us mere mortals.

Level 75

Jun 29, 2018

Brain farts, consistently successful in robbing me of full marks on countless quizzes; already got the English and Welsh questions and when I saw the "Auld Lang Syne" one I immediately thought Gaelic, but when Irish didn't work I completely forgot Scotland had their own language/dialect and were like: "so it must be some other language group then." Proceeded to try every concievable living language until the time ran out! *sigh*

Level 58

Jul 4, 2018

A note about nomenclature: Gaelic is not Irish - Gaelic is spoken in Scotland. Irish is a separate (but very closely related language to Gaelic) language. Scots is different from both Gaelic and Irish - Scots is a Germanic language, whereas the former two are Celtic.

Level 81

Jun 29, 2018

Can you add 'euskara' as legitimate answer in addition to basque?

Level 28

Jun 29, 2018

19/19 with 2 minutes to spare and I'm playing via my mum from the womb.

Level 68

Jun 30, 2018

Fun quiz, thanks. Got all but Phoenician.

Level 47

Jun 30, 2018

Would you accept Euskera for Basque ?

Level 41

Jul 1, 2018

out of all the good things coming outta Armenia they had to talk only about kardashians lmao.

Level 59

Jul 1, 2018

could you accept jiddish ? that is how we spell it in Dutch. Also, I typed arabian, without capital, and it did not take.

Level 58

Jul 4, 2018

It probably didn't accept Arabian (with or without a capital letter) because that is not the name of the language - it's Arabic. Yiddish is the English spelling of that language - must Quizmaster cater to all other languages?

Level 70

Mar 13, 2020

Not every language but at least the language in its own language would be nice: "Yiddish" is "Jiddisch" in Yiddish.

Level 64

Oct 10, 2021

umm no it isn't? In my over 18 years experience being jewish I have never come across it spelled that way. Furthermore, a quick google search will show you that there is no "j" in yiddish or hebrew.

Level 71

Feb 26, 2024

"In my 18 years of being Jewish."

Absolutely nobody asked or cares.

If you don't speak Yiddish or something closely related like Bavarian, you're disqualified to answer the question.

Level 91

Aug 13, 2018

I take quizzes in German. When I know the answer, but can't type it right...I've just done what I came to do: learn a little more German. No reason in demanding Germans start using English spellings.

Level 72

Oct 13, 2018

Stick figures having sex.

Level 50

Apr 4, 2020

Assassin comes from a sect that lived in Persia in the XI century, way before Shakespeare. He may had added it to english language, but he didn't invent it for sure.

Level ∞

Apr 4, 2020

Just because the concept has been around for a long time doesn't mean that the word existed in the English language. Shakespeare's "Macbeth" is the earliest known usage of the word in written English.

Level 64

Feb 6, 2022

It’s the Hashashins, if Doctor Who wasn’t lying about that in 1964!

Level 79

Apr 19, 2022

It doesn't say "assassin," it says "assassination." Creating a noun from a pre-existing verb counts as coining a new word. However, according to Merriam-Webster, Shakespeare didn't invent the word "assassination" either. They give an example of it being used in a letter in 1572, more than 15 years before Shakespeare wrote his first play.

Level 50

Mar 27, 2021

If only I knew how to spell ‘Yiddish’, I knew what it was but know how to spell it. Even had all the other answers correct as well :(

Level 73

Dec 8, 2021

Euskera for Basque, please

Level 44

Feb 4, 2022

I couldn't figure out how to spell Shackesprearre

Level 82

Feb 6, 2022

Missed opportunity for "What language is this question written in?" but in like Korean

Level 63

Feb 6, 2022

Great quiz! I only got 12/19 but I would love to see more of these!

Level 53

Feb 6, 2022

Would you accept Lallans for auld Lang syne?

Level 85

Feb 6, 2022

> What comes next after eins and zwei?

...not "Polizei"?

Level 59

Feb 7, 2022

...drei, vier, Grenadier...

Level 61

Feb 6, 2022

Please accept Diné for Navajo, as that's the endonym (as Deutsch is to German, for example).

Level 66

Feb 7, 2022

12/19

Level 66

Feb 7, 2022

Please include Dine bizaad for the antepenultimate question and other endonymic names for languages as appropriate.

Level 58

Feb 10, 2022

wtf is eins and zwei??

Level 57

Feb 17, 2022

German numbers 1 and 2

Level 57

Feb 17, 2022

Can you accept Babyl?

Level 67

Dec 6, 2022

Armenian ftw

Level 68

Feb 20, 2024

It's not really accurate to say that Basque isn't "closely related" to any other living language. That implies it's instead distantly related. It is not related -at all- to any other living language.

Level 34

Mar 1, 2024

All languages are related. Basque is just not closely related enough to any other language for its relations to be discernable. Current wording is fine.

Level 76

Feb 26, 2024

Perhaps the question on Yiddish could be rephrased to ‘What was the most commonly spoken language among Jews of Eastern Europe before WWII?’

Jews from other parts of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Ethiopia, India, and most Jews living North America since the turn of the century (accounting for the majority of world Jewry) would not have spoken Yiddish - rather the local languages of the country in which they resided and/or other Judaic languages.

Level 71

Feb 26, 2024

It was the most spoken language by Jews overall though since the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe were more populous than the Jews in Spain or around the Mediterranean Sea.

Level 52

Feb 26, 2024

maybe accept Phoenicia for Phoenicians?

Level 20

Feb 27, 2024

Official name of the city :

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

The second longest place name in the world clocks in at 58 letters. You'll find the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch on the island of Ynys Môn (known as Anglesey in English), off the coast of Wales.19.05.2021

( If you didn't mean the city I'm sorry )

Level 23

Mar 1, 2024

Got two wrong. Was going to guess the Hawaiian one (Hono-lulu) but just ran out of time. Also l thought the Armenian one was attributed to their neighbouring Azeri...

Level 45

Mar 7, 2024

Could you accept 'Tower of Babylon'? I have read it referred as such somewhere, and both 'Babel' and 'Babylon' are names for the same city.

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