How Do You Say ...? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Magyar

Hungarian is spoken by 10.5 million people in Hungary, or 98 percent of the population. It is also spoken in the surrounding countries: Romania, the Czech and Slovak Republics, the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine and Israel. There are about 450,000 Hungarian-speaking Americans and roughly 20,000 Hungarian speaking people in Slovenia, Canada, and Austria. Famous Hungarians include: Bela Lugosi, Franz Liszt, Harry Houdini, Calvin Klein, Joseph Pulitzer, Estee Lauder, George Pataki and Erno Rubik (inventor of the Rubik's Cube). Looks like I have to thank him for all those hours of confusion!

Answer: Svenska

Swedish language is a member of the North Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. It is the official language of Sweden and one of the official languages of Finland, and it is spoken by about 9 million people: 8,500,000 in Sweden and 500,000 elsewhere, chiefly in Finland, Norway, and Estonia.
Some famous Swedes: Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, Franz Berwald, Anders Celsius, Alfred Nobel and Nicklas Lindstrom.

Answer: Nederlands

The Dutch language is a member of the Netherlandic-German group in the western branch of the Germanic languages. Dutch is the official language of The Netherlands and some of its former colonies including Netherlands Antilles, Suriname and Aruba. It is also spoken in the Flemish part of Belgium, by 58% of the Belgians.

The name Dutch is derived from the word Dietsch, meaning the vernacular, as distinguished from Latin. Famous Dutch people include the painters Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn and Piet Mondriaan.

Answer: Gaeilge

Gaelic is the official language of Ireland. It derives from the Indo-European language family and is a Celtic language. It is spoken by approximately 300,000 people but is also spoken in other parts of the world. Famous Irish include: Francis Bacon, James Hoban, Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Ernest Shackleton.
(Many thanks to td_str for assistance with this question)

Answer: Slovensky

Slovak is a member of the Western Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 5.6 million people and is the official language of Slovakia. Some famous Slovaks include: Alexander Dubcek, Ludovit Stur, Martina Moravcova and Charles Belohlavek.

Answer: Cesky

Czech belongs to the western group of Slavic languages. More loosely it is related to the languages forming the eastern Slavic group and the southern Slavic group. As a Slavic language Czech belongs to the eastern, or satem, division of Indo-European.

Famous Czechs: Antonin Dvorak, Frantisek Kupka and Jaroslev Hasek.

Answer: Polski

Polish is spoken by about 43 million people of whom some 36.5 million speakers live in Poland, where it is the official language. Another 2.5 million Polish speakers live in the USA. Polish is a Slavic - or Slavonic - language and belongs to the western Slavic subgroup, which also includes Czech and Slovak.

Some famous Poles: Nicolaus Copernicus, John Paul II, Roman Polanski, Marie Curie and Frederic Chopin.

Answer: Kijomba

The Swahili language, is basically of Bantu (African) origin. It has borrowed words from other languages such as Arabic. The word "Swahili" was used by early Arab visitors to the coast and it means "the coast". Ultimately it came to be applied to the people and the language. It is spoken primarily in eastern Africa.

Answer: Dansk

Danish is a "product" of the East Germanic Language. It is the official language of Denmark. Some famous Danes are Victor Borge, Soren Kierkegaard, Robert Jakobsen and Hans Christian Andersen.

Answer: Eesti

The history of Estonian is a varied and colorful one, stated best here: "As a result of the crusades, the predominantly Low German nobility and burghers became established on the territory of Old Livonia, which covered areas of the present day Estonia and Latvia. The strongest influence on the Estonian language was exerted by Low and High German, and by the local Baltic German dialect that developed from them."
Famous Estonians include: Arvo Pärt, Jaan Kross, Jakob Mihkelson, Eduard Vilde, Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Maimu Berg, Viivi Luik, Kalle Randalu and Carmen Kass.

Answer: Bahasa Indonesia

Indonesian, an Austronesian language, is a standardized form of Malay and is spoken throughout Indonesia. About 30 million people speak Indonesian as their first language and a further 140 million speak it as a second language. Some famous Indonesians are: Hendrawan, Habbibie, Harmoko, Hatta Mohamed and Nadia Hutagalung.

Answer: Latvijas

The Latvian language is a part of the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. The Baltic languages are divided into two branches, the West and East Baltic languages. Latvian is the historic language of Latvia and according to the Ethnologue has 1,550,000 speakers worldwide including 1,394,000 in Latvia, 50,000 in the United States, 29,000 in Russia, 25,000 in Australia, 15,000 in Canada, 8,000 in Germany, 8,000 in England, 6,000 in Sweden, 5,000 in Lithuania, 2,600 in Ukraine, 2,000 in Estonia, 2,000 in Brazil, 1,000 in Belarus, 1,000 in New Zealand, and 1,000 in Venezuela.

Some famous Latvians: Jim Backus, Kaz Garas, and Ann Jillian.

Answer: Suomi

Finnish is a member of the Finno-Ugric language family which is spoken by about 6 million people, mainly in Finland; there are small Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, Norway and Russia. Also many people in Estonia speak Finnish. Some famous Finns: Hugo Simberg, Jean Sibelius, Ville Valo and Edward Westermarck.

Answer: Norsk

Norwegian derives from Western Northern Germanic language and is the language of Norway. Its two major dialects are Nynorsk and Bokmal. Some famous Norwegians include: Leif Erikson, Henrik Ibsen, Walter Mondale, Bernt Balchen and Jakob Bjerknes.

Answer: italiano

Italian is one of many Romance languages, which are derived from Latin. The others include: Catalan, Portuguese, Occitan, Rhaeto-Romanic, Romanian, Spanish and French. Italian is spoken by 62 million people and is the official language of Italy and San Marino.

Some famous Italians include: Michaelangelo, Guglielmo Marconi, Leonardo da Vinci, Marco Polo and Cristoforo Colombo (better known as Christopher Columbus).