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Ethnic Groups A-Z

Name these ethnic groups starting with each letter of the alphabet.
Too easy? Check out this unofficial sequel.
Quiz by Aaron197
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Last updated: August 6, 2020
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First submittedSeptember 30, 2019
Times taken25,318
Average score57.7%
Rating4.53
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Clue
Ethnic Group
A
Dominant ethnic group of the Middle East and North Africa
Arabs
B
This group of Spain and France speaks a language unrelated to all other
European languages
Basques
C
Christian ethnic group in Egypt
Copts
D
Native American tribe for which two U.S. states are named
Dakota
E
Uralic-speaking group of the European Union
Estonians
F
Dutch-speaking people that live in northern Belgium
Flemish
G
Ethnic group of Mahatma Gandhi
Gujaratis
H
This ethnic group makes up about 18% of the global population
Han Chinese
I
Group of similar culturally indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic
regions of Greenland, Canada and Alaska
Inuit
J
Largest ethnic group in Indonesia
Javanese
K
They live primarily in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq
Kurds
L
Indochinese group that originated in southern China
Lao
M
African tribe in Tanzania and Kenya whose life centers around cattle herding
Maasai
N
Ancient people who inhabit the Nile valley in Sudan and Egypt
Nubians
O
Main ethnic group of the Indian state of Odisha
Oriya
P
Ethnic group of Marie Curie, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Frédéric Chopin
Poles
Q
Main people that built the Inca Empire
Quechua
R
This nomadic group orginally came from India, but now lives in
various European countries
Romani
S
Indigenous people of northern Scandinavia and Finland
Sami
T
Second largest ethnic group in Russia, centered around the city of Kazan
Tatars
U
Turkic ethnic group oppressed by the Chinese government
Uyghurs
V
They are called "Kinh" to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in the country
Vietnamese
W
They call themselves "Cymry"
Welsh
X
Nelson Mandela's ethnic group
Xhosa
Y
Ethnic group to which 98.5% of Japanese residents belong
Yamato
Z
The largest ethnic group in South Africa
Zulu
62 Comments
+3
Level 67
Oct 2, 2019
Either "Native American tribe for which two U.S. states are named" or, if you insist on ending a clue with a preposition, "Native American tribe which two U.S. states are named after". But "Native American tribe for which two U.S. states are named after" is objectively wrong by any measure.
+1
Level ∞
Oct 2, 2019
Fixed
+1
Level 76
Oct 2, 2019
Should've known those Russians in T. Especially because I've had an exam question about them once and was totally clueless what to answer. Should've learned from then, you'd think?
+4
Level 78
Nov 25, 2019
Could you accept "Tartar"
+11
Level 76
Nov 29, 2019
Only with halibut.
+3
Level 51
May 22, 2020
Tartar sauce's name comes from the Tatars, which are also reffered to as Tartars. Both spellings should be accepted.
+2
Level 82
Jul 20, 2020
Tartar, Javan and Estonia - none of these are recognised as correct answers. which seems somewhat harsh. Maybe consider...?
+1
Level 69
Oct 31, 2023
What's this whole Tartars beef?
+3
Level 87
Oct 2, 2019
I think you should add "Roma" as an accepted name where you only now accept "Romani". I have mostly heard of them referred to as "Roma".

.

+3
Level ∞
Oct 3, 2019
Roma will work now.
+1
Level 59
Jul 23, 2020
Ive heard both, but didnt realize they were the same. I also didnt know they were from India...
+2
Level 63
Oct 3, 2019
Sami is spelled alternately as Saami. Suggest adding that as an accepted name.
+2
Level ∞
Oct 4, 2019
Okay
+2
Level 57
Sep 29, 2022
they should also be removed because they are not indigenous to those parts.
+2
Level 54
Jan 30, 2023
Excuse me, but what do you mean??
+3
Level 76
Apr 12, 2023
I think what he means is that the Sami people originally migrated to northern Scandinavia from somewhere near the Ural mountains in what is now Russia, just like the Finns and Estonians.

While that is true, I think the word "indigenous" makes little sense in a European context. Europe has never been colonized by an external power; the people who live there today are its indigenous people. One could argue that the people who first lived there are indigenous, e.g. the Celts to the British isles, who were then "colonized" by the Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Normans... But I think that is stretching the definition of that term.

The Sami are as much "indigenous" to Scandinavia as are the Finns or Norse (Swedes etc.). They all migrated there at some point. In fact, Norse migration to Scandinavia probably even predates Sami migration.

The Sami are probably being called "indigenous" because many of them still live a traditional, semi-nomadic lifestyle, but I think this is not what that word means.

+3
Level 83
Nov 4, 2023
Even the Celts aren't 'indigenous'. The two strains of thought are that the Celtic people invaded/immigrated, or that Celtic culture spread through trade networks. There were people in Britain long before the arrival of Celtic culture (which only spread across Europe in the first millennium or so BC), but Britain is an odd case because there were waves of immigration at different times that didn't always last.
+2
Level 74
Feb 19, 2024
Marcell, Sami peoples are considered one of the only or sometimes the only group in western Europe to actually have been "colonized" (at least by some experts and organizations). Sapmi wasn't colonized by non-Europeans, of course, but there are similarities between how 18th-20th century Norwegian and Swedish governments have treated Sami, and how European and colonial governments treated indigenous peoples (such as forced assimilation, forced displacement, allocation of the best lands to Scandinavian settlers, and discriminatory laws around resource use). There are also similarities when it comes to relationships these various governments have to these peoples today (particularly issues of sovereignty and land rights). I think they're considered indigenous because of these similarities plus traditional lifestyles.

You are right that the Sami didn't arrive to Scandinavia before the Norse though, which I didn't know! Though for most of history the two groups had very little interaction.

+1
Level 74
Feb 19, 2024
brandy, while what you say is true, I think that logic would conclude that many groups considered "indigenous" today aren't really "indigenous". People moved often, at least in the Americas and I'd guess everywhere else too.

For example, are the Navajo an indigenous people of the southwest US? This logic would conclude they aren't, as they migrated from the northwest within the last thousand years, and there had already been people living in the area they settled.

+1
Level 76
May 9, 2024
Furby, that is an interesting point that I didn't consider and it is probably true if we look at modern history only - although, didn't the Nazis blow in the same horn with their invasion of Eastern Europe? Or what about the previous partition of Poland by Prussia, Russia and Austria? If we include premodern history, however, most parts of Europe were a one point colonized. My own country, or rather the area it lies in today, was colonized by Rome and all the things you mentioned and worse (forced assimilation, displacement, even slavery etc) happened to the people living there, who themselves probably weren't the first to settle there. Sadly, most of history is people from one area lacking resources to sustain their population development and thus making up a right to claim other people's resources, be it racial superiority, the one true religion or just a simple honest "we're stronger than them so let's just take their stuff".
+3
Level 73
Oct 3, 2019
I've never seen 'Uyghurs' in written form, so I was wracking my brain for another group aside from "Weegurs." Whelp!
+1
Level 55
Sep 3, 2020
The "wee-gur" pronunciation is actually a racial slur. The proper pronounciation is "ooy-goor" according to those of us who speak Turkic languages.
+8
Level 86
Dec 24, 2021
The "wee-gur" pronunciation is not a racial slur according to my sister-in-law who is Uyghur.
+10
Level 61
Oct 16, 2019
I feel proud my ethnic group (Odia) got featured in a Jetpunk quiz :") Which is also the least guessed, can't say I blame you though.
+1
Level 81
Nov 29, 2019
Hey.. it's almost as much-guessed as a group that comprises 125 million Japanese.
+5
Level 67
Nov 29, 2019
Yeah, it's interesting that the Yamato so overwhelm the Japanese population that we just call them "Japanese." I'm quite a Japanophile, and I'd never heard that term until this quiz.
+1
Level 59
Jul 23, 2020
I knew it from the book Children of the Mind (by Orson Scott Card)
+1
Level 81
Oct 25, 2020
^loved that book but don't remember the reference to Yamato people.
+2
Level 68
Sep 28, 2021
I just happened to watch a series about the history of Japan.
+4
Level 78
Mar 3, 2022
I knew it from Age of Empires
+5
Level 73
Nov 29, 2019
The NBA wants everyone to know that it had nothing to do with this quiz--and in particular with the clue for the letter "U."
+4
Level 79
Nov 29, 2019
Interesting - I've lived in China as long as I can remember and yet have never heard of U on Chinese media!
+1
Level 79
Nov 29, 2019
Also, why does it say 'European Union' instead of 'Europe' in E?
+2
Level 66
Nov 29, 2019
I would assume because of the Erzya subgroup of Mordvins that live in Mordovia, Russia.
+1
Level 79
Nov 29, 2019
Could 'Tartar' be accepted for T, as it is sometimes written that way?
+5
Level 81
Nov 29, 2019
particularly when referencing their sauce.
+3
Level 79
Apr 3, 2020
Okay, seems like I was wrong:

Tartar: a member of the combined forces of central Asian peoples, including Mongols and Turks, who under the leadership of Genghis Khan conquered much of Asia and eastern Europe in the early 13th century, and under Tamerlane (14th century) established an empire with its capital at Samarkand.

Tatar: a member of a Turkic people living in Tatarstan and various other parts of Russia and Ukraine. They are the descendants of the Tartars who ruled central Asia in the 14th century.

+2
Level 68
Sep 28, 2021
I wonder how many more -stan countries would emerge if Russia gave them independence.
+3
Level 79
Dec 9, 2019
Actually, I have heard of U on Chinese media, but only when referring to great improvements in their living standards, and how content they are with their lives.
+1
Level 65
Nov 29, 2019
Great use of the word comprise, kalbahamut!
+1
Level 84
Nov 29, 2019
I think you'll find that the Kurds live mainly in South-East Turkey not the South-West.
+1
Level ∞
Nov 30, 2019
Fixed
+1
Level 69
Nov 29, 2019
Bit confused by Estonians being classed as a separate ethnic group - they are Finnic, same as Finns.
+2
Level 59
Nov 29, 2019
Well, "ethnic groups", like "races", are imaginary categories invented by humans to simplify a much more complex reality. They're just a matter of convention, so considering "Estonians" to be a separate ethnic group isn't wrong... Not more than considering them to be "Finnic", anyway.
+8
Level 81
Nov 29, 2019
ethnicity is not exactly the same as race. Though both are social constructs, the chief difference is that the concept of "race" asserts that there is some objective underlying genetic reason to divide people into very large, mostly discrete groups dissimilar from other large, discrete groups. There is not. Ethnicity, on the other hand, does objectively exist as all that is required to belong to an ethnicity, by definition, is to identify that you do. It's really about how people label, sort, and identify themselves. The concept of ethnicity makes no assertions about people other than the fact that we tend to sort ourselves and others into tribes. Ethnicity can be about a perceived common culture, history, language, geography, religion, or nationality as easily as it can be about skin color or biology. You can identify as belonging to multiple different ethnicities, or you can reject them all and belong to none. And ethnicities can also be subdivided.
+6
Level 71
Nov 29, 2019
Cymru = Wales

Cymraeg = Welsh

+3
Level 45
Nov 29, 2019
Should accept Viet for Vietnamese.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Việt

(rare, of a person) Synonym of Kinh (“ethnically Vietnamese, as opposed to other ethnic groups in Vietnam”)

+3
Level 58
Nov 29, 2019
First of all, Copts are not an ethnic group. Look at any government census of Egypt and you'll see that the population is almost 99% ethnic Egyptian. Copts are ethnic Egyptian Christians. Secondly, calling the Saami "indigenous" implies some sort of colonization from the likes of white Scandinavians, when they have been in Scandinavia for as long, if not longer.
+2
Level 60
Dec 2, 2019
Wrong on both counts.
+2
Level 58
Dec 18, 2019
You're free to prove your position
+4
Level 58
Dec 18, 2019
In fact, to not stall the conversation:

On count 1:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Egypt

"The vast majority of the population of Egypt consists of Egyptians including Copts, Egyptians make up 95% of the population. The vast majority of Egyptians are native speakers of modern Egyptian Arabic. "

"Minorities in Egypt include the Copts who represent around 10% of the entire population and live all over the country,..."

Copts identify as Egyptian on government censuses.

On count 2:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1mi_people

"... From the Bronze Age the Sámi occupied the area off the coast of Finnmark and the Kola peninsula..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Germanic_peoples

"The Battle Axe culture, a local variant of the Corded Ware culture, which was itself an offshoot of the Yamnaya culture, emerged in southern Scandinavia in the early 3rd millennium BC..."

What's your case?

+5
Level 54
Jan 30, 2023
Saami people were(/are) ablsolutely colonialized and forcefully assimilated by scandinavians and finns.

Yes, Scandinavians were first to arrive to southern scandinavia, but the Saami people were first to settle in the northern parts of fennoscandia.

Also, Saami people are internationally recognized as indeginous people, so I don't understand why you argue with that..

+2
Level 63
Nov 29, 2019
Spelling leniency for Quechua? (I ALWAYS forget that second U...)
+3
Level 52
Dec 1, 2019
Nice quiz. You could perhaps add some more time. It takes quite long to read hints for the non native English speaker.
+1
Level 71
Jan 25, 2020
DrakiGuy makes an interesting point. I do however fail to see how referring to an ethnic group as "indigenous" implies that some form of colonisation has occurred. What is the indigenous ethnicity of England for example? Celtic, or something prior to that? Anglo-Saxon, whatever that may mean, or some combination with Norman or more generally Norse, ditto? Or something more recent? At what point in time does something become indigenous? Ethnicity is a rather flexible, slippery term in any case. Can try using the pair Auto- and Allochthone, but still have same problem.
+1
Level 91
Oct 8, 2021
Should accept Javan
+1
Level 46
Nov 17, 2021
I'm Chinese and I forgot how to spell "Uyghur".

Successful, no?

+2
Level 59
Mar 30, 2022
Pleasantly surprised to see no one caring about calling North Africans ethnically Arab. Especially so when Amazigh begins with A.
+1
Level 57
Sep 29, 2022
sami are not "indigenous" to finland. the finns have been there long before sami migrated there.
+1
Level 54
Jan 30, 2023
Even if the finns did arrive and settle in the southern regions on finland before saami people arrived there, saami people were first to largely inhabit and settle in lappland aka sapmi. Yes there were some finns there as well, but sapmi has allways been the land of the saami people.

And when sapmi was colonized saami people were forcefully assimilated. They had to stop speaking their languages, stop wearing their gakti, stop being saami. The cultures were almost forced out of exsistance.

+1
Level 24
Mar 25, 2023
Contrary to popular belief, indigenous people doesn't mean who was where first. Well, it's one definition, but most indigenous peoples are; "(of people) inhabiting or existing in a land from the earliest times or from before the arrival of colonists." While Finns are indigenous to Southern Finland, they are not considered an indigenous people. It's a specific term for a specific group of people.
+1
Level 65
Mar 25, 2024
I am surprised that "Gujarat" and "Gujarati" are not taken. Counterintuitive.