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Quiz about The Odd One Out Languages Style

The Odd One Out: Languages' Style Quiz

Languages spoken around the world are as diverse as the people speaking them. Still, there are similarities - e.g. in the way they are spoken, written or structured. Your aim is to find the "odd one out", based on different criteria.

A multiple-choice quiz by mchem. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
mchem

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
332,263

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
549

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. LANGUAGE FAMILIES: Which of these languages isn't directly related to the others? Hint

French

Spanish

Italian

English

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Question 2 of 10

2. WRITTEN LANGUAGE: All of the following use the same alphabet, except which? Hint

Hungarian

Polish

Tajik

Turkish

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Question 3 of 10

3. SPOKEN LANGUAGE: Some world languages use a different pitch in word pronunciation to convey different meanings. Which of the following isn't a tonal language? Hint

Mongol

Zulu

Mandarin Chinese

Navajo

4. GRAMMAR: Most languages have a singular and a plural form, showing quantity - one and many, respectively. However, in a few languages a third one - the dual form - exists for nouns and/or pronouns to denote the quantity of EXACTLY two. Which of the following languages doesn't have this form? Hint

Modern Standard Arabic

German

Hawaiian

Slovene

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Question 5 of 10

5. LACK OF OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Though most countries tend to have at least one official language, there are exceptions. Which of the following countries isn't one (i.e. it DOES have an official language)? Hint

Australia

Russia

USA

Mexico

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Question 6 of 10

6. MULTIPLE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: In contrast, some countries have more than one official language - for example, South Africa has eleven. Which of the following isn't one of those eleven? Hint

Swahili

English

Xhosa

Afrikaans

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Question 7 of 10

7. LANGUAGE NAMES: Most languages' names are officially recognized all over the world. For which of these is this NOT the case? Hint

Macedonian

Serbian

Greek

Bulgarian

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Question 8 of 10

8. BIBLICAL LANGUAGES: As the Bible is important to millions of people around the world, so are the original languages it was written in. Which of these isn't considered a biblical language? Hint

Koine Greek

Latin

Classical Hebrew

Aramaic

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Question 9 of 10

9. LANGUAGES AND FICTION: Language is, logically, a vital part of literature. Some writers, like the author J.R.R.Tolkien, have taken its importance beyond simply the use of existing languages by creating artificial ones for the world their characters inhabit. In the case of the "Lord of the Rings"-trilogy, its many fans have often been inspired to learn these languages as one would with a foreign language. Which of the listed artistic languages wasn't created by Tolkien? Hint

Na'vi

Quenya

Sindarin

Black Speech

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Question 10 of 10

10. LANGUAGES AND COMMUNICATION: Not all artificial languages are created purely for entertainment purposes. Sometimes the aim is to create or improve a means for communication between people. For which of the following languages is human communication not the main purpose? Hint

Interlingua

Esperanto

Java

Sign Language

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. LANGUAGE FAMILIES: Which of these languages isn't directly related to the others?

Answer: English

While the other three are members of the Romanic language family, English is a Germanic language.

2. WRITTEN LANGUAGE: All of the following use the same alphabet, except which?

Answer: Tajik

Though not directly related, Polish, Turkish and Hungarian are all written using the Latin alphabet. Tajikistan, being a former Soviet republic, uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

3. SPOKEN LANGUAGE: Some world languages use a different pitch in word pronunciation to convey different meanings. Which of the following isn't a tonal language?

Answer: Mongol

Tonal languages have two types of tone systems: contour and register tone. With contour tone the "shape" of the pitch (rising, falling, dipping, level) is the important feature, while register tone language use the relative difference between the pitches (high, middle, low). Mandarin is an example for a language with the contour tone system, while Zulu and Navajo have the register tone system.

Answer: German

Though the dual form is a feature of all the early Germanic languages, it isn't present in modern German.

Answer: Russia

Although most people in Australia and the USA speak English, and most Mexicans have Spanish as their first language, these are not considered official in the legal sense.

6. MULTIPLE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: In contrast, some countries have more than one official language - for example, South Africa has eleven. Which of the following isn't one of those eleven?

Answer: Swahili

The other eight official languages are: Zulu, Northern Sotho, Tswana, Sotho, Tsonga, Swati, Venda and Ndebele. Swahili is considered official in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

7. LANGUAGE NAMES: Most languages' names are officially recognized all over the world. For which of these is this NOT the case?

Answer: Macedonian

The language spoken in the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), as well as the name of the country itself is the subject of an international dispute. While Serbia recognizes both the country's name and the language, Bulgaria recognizes the country, but claims that the language is a dialect form of Bulgarian. Greece claims the descriptions Macedonia and Macedonian for terms pertaining to the eponymous Greek region. For this reason the Greek government doesn't recognize either the country or the language under the current names.

8. BIBLICAL LANGUAGES: As the Bible is important to millions of people around the world, so are the original languages it was written in. Which of these isn't considered a biblical language?

Answer: Latin

Although it is the language of the Catholic Church, none of the original writings of the Bible are in Latin, thus it isn't a biblical language.

Answer: Na'vi

Na'vi is the language spoken by the blue alien protagonists of James Cameron's 2009 movie, "Avatar". As with Tolkien's languages, it was created by a linguistics specialist, Paul Frommer (Tolkien himself was a specialist in Old English). It also inspired some fans of the movie to learn the language.

Black Speech is a special case of being a constructed language both in reality and in the books - created by the villain, Sauron, to be used by his servants.

Answer: Java

Java is a programming language and as such, it represents a means of controlling computations and algorithms performed by computers, rather than a language for human interactions. (In contrast, the Javanese language is a natural language spoken on the island of Java, Indonesia.)
Sign Language is actually a collective name for languages used by deaf people to communicate. It is based on body movement instead of verbal communication.
Esperanto and Interlingua are both auxiliary languages, created to enable communication between people of different countries, while remaining politically neutral.

Source: Author mchem

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor stedman before going online.
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