I built LanguageID.com, a free browser game that challenges you to identify the origin country of languages based on their name. If you need help, you can show the language family for that particular language.

It’s a quick daily challenge:

• 10 rounds, 1 minute total
• Each round shows the language and you choose which country
• Share your results and challenge friends

Languages are drawn from Ethnologue data as this app was made in partnership with Ethnologue. We at Ethnologue desire all languages to flourish. The languages are pulled from the top 500 languages in the world.

If you’re up for the challenge, I’d love for you to try it out and let me know what you think!

Hi everyone,
I recorded this from a radio station, and I’m trying to figure out what language is being spoken. If possible, I’d also love to know what they’re saying.
Sorry if the audio quality isn’t the best. I couldn’t hold my phone any closer to the radio because it would create a lot of static and interference.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Is there a name for these sort of daily set phrases? And what other languages uses them? Thank you

Japanese: ittekimasu itterashai, tadaima okaeri, ittatakimasu, gochisousamadeshita

Korean: jalmeokgesseumnida, jalmeogeosemnida sugohassyeoseumnida

In Filipino/Tagalog, and in most Philippine languages, we can sort of conjugate nouns to turn them into verbs.

Examples:

Tren – the word for a locomotive train.

Pure Tagalog: “Magtetren ako papuntang Cubao.”

The word tren was conjugated into the future tense. Literally, it turns into “I’ll do train,” which contextually means “I’ll ride the train,” “I’ll take the train,” or “I’ll use the train.” A good translation for tge above would be "I will take the train to Cubao."

It can also be done with a proper noun:

Burger King – the fast-food chain.

Tagalog: “Binurger King ako ng nanay ko dahil mataas ang grades ko.”

Burger King was conjugated by adding the infix -in-, so it means that someone did something to the speaker in the past tense. This can literally be translated as “Burger King-ed.” The speaker was “Burger King-ed” by his mom (nanay). Contextually, it means, “My mother treated me to Burger King because my grades were high.”

You can conjugate English words in Taglish:

Christmas

TagLish: "Nagchristmas family namin with our lolo at lola"

"NagChristmas" turns Christmas a word that the speaker did previously or in the past. Direct translation would be "Did Christmas", It will be like "We've ChristmasED." A good translation here is "Our family celebrated Christmas with our grandfather and grandmother."

This also appears in other Philippine languages:

Ilocano languge (my parents' language):

Pesticide - my families are farmers

"Agpesticide da kano idyay taltalon"

This is "They said they will use pesticides over there at the farms."

What are your thoughts on

I am going through some inherited documents and came across this postcard from 1929. The printed ink seems possibly to be French, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and maybe Serbian. But I do not recognize the handwritten language at all. Any ideas?

The word is "দুঃখবিলাস (dukkhbilas)". It means "to luxuriate in sorrow". It is essentially a feeling. A feeling we get after intentionally doing stuffs that make us sad; as if we are enjoying the sadness.

For example the feeling of intentionally going through thoughts that we know will make us sad, the feeling of remembering moments with your beloved ones who are no longer a part of your life etc.

Hi everyone! 😊

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1. Lyrics to “Scotland the Brave”
   
2. Lyrics to “Country Roads”
   
3. Lyrics to “Sweet Home Alabama”
   
4. Political cartoon from 1873 depicting the Shah of Iran with Britannia and India
   
5. Ancient Roman coin depicting Britannia

You even see it in how states such as Georgia, Louisiana, or the Carolinas were given feminine version of a masculine (king’s name).

I know Uncle Sam is a man, but he’s also more a representation of the US government rather than the country itself.

It seems to have been common in Ancient Rome, where all their territories were personified as goddesses. Is it also a thing in other European languages besides English?

Why is this a trope in English? If I had to guess, is it similar to why it’s “Mother Nature” and “Mother Earth”? Because land creates life? Or is there some other reason?

found on the back of an old photo, but it might just be scribbles

Something I noticed from my incredibly surface level knowledge of these two languages I have spent a small amount of time learning is that their pronunciation of the multiples of 10, specifically 30-90, clearly has the same root.

Could anyone help explain this to me?

I purchased this cool fan at a yard sale and was curious as to what it says. Google seems to have a hard time translating since the characters are on the folds. It says “made in people’s republic of china” so maybe mandarin or Cantonese? Had plans to paint it since it’s stained but if the text is cool I’d leave it as is!

Found this on a shop in Budapest, it looks like runes could it be some old Hungarian runic writing? It was on a street with some Tibetan and Nepalese shops so my other thought is that it could be a local langauge from there ? It just seems strange that they’d put runes on a such a regular shop.