Words Around the Globe Trivia Quiz

Answer: A list of languages around the world

The Ethnologue is a list of languages around the world. In 2008, the list contained an astonishing 6.900 registered languages.

Answer: Cetate

A more modern word for city would be "oraº". Romanian is not a Slavic language, but a Romance language. Therefore it sounds more like French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and of course Latin than the languages in neighbouring countries like Bulgaria and Serbia.

"Cité" is French. "Cidade" is Portuguese. "City" is English.

Answer: Turkish

It's Turkish. This language is only spoken in Turkey itself. "Silence" in Spanish is "silencio". In Yiddish, it's "schtilkeit". In Czech, it's "mlèení" (try breaking your tongue on that one).

Answer: Greek

The Rosetta Stone was found in Egypt in 1799 by the French and became the key to hieroglyphics because it was written in Greek, Egyptian (demotian) and Hieroglyphics. The other languages mentioned here were already existent in the 2nd century AD when the stone was supposedly created, but did not appear on the stone.

Answer: Amanzi

I bet this one was a wild guess for all of you. Zulu is a tribal language from South Africa. "Unosiba" means "clerk". "Ingcwaba" means "grave". "Ingulube" means "pig".

Answer: Malay

The correct answer is Malay. Malay is spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia. Khmer is spoken in Cambodia, but has an entirely different writing looking much alike Thai being spoken in Thailand. "Market" in Vietnamese is "chõò".

Answer: Esperanto

Zamenhof was a Polish doctor and created Esperanto, the most popular artificial language to date. Zamenhof created Esperanto in the 19th century. In this era nationalism grew, causing international tensions. Many individuals and groups began creating artificial languages to stimulate mutual understanding.

Ido is an update on Esperanto. Zamenhof has worked on this language as well, but finally opposed to the (minor) changes. Interlingua was published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association. Novial was created by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen who also was committed to Ido.

Answer: Frisian

It's Frisian. Frisian is the language of a Dutch province. Although Dutch is the common language a majority of the population is still fluent in Frisian which is also being taught in some schools.

Gaelic is spoken in large parts of the UK and Ireland. Although English is the official language in all of these countries, Gaelic is still popular. "Father" in Gaelic means "athair". Romansh is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, despite being spoken by a mere 1% of the Swiss population. "Father" in this strange language is "bab". Basque is a language spoken in a part of Spain. Some of the inhabitants claim independence. "Father" in Basque is "aita".

Answer: Kia ora

"Kia ora"! The ones of you who have visited New Zealand must have heard it hundreds of times. The Maori people are the indiguenous inhabitants of perhaps the most beautiful country on our planet. "Aotearoa" is Maori for "New Zealand" (land of the long white cloud). "Haka" is a war dance also performed by the national sports teams of New Zealand. "Kiwi" is a bird and also icon for New Zealand.

Answer: Ladrón

A Spanish "burglar" is called a "ladrón" (well, not if he's committing his crimes in another country of course ;-)). Spanish is spoken all over the world. Besides Spain it covers huge parts of the American continents. "Puño" means "fist". "Libro" means "book". "Zapato" means "shoe".