Ever been stopped by a stranger and asked what language you speak? How frequently have they guessed the correct language on the first try? And how good are you at telling the difference between languages? The “Great Language Game” is a fun way to try and figure out just that!
The game increases in difficulty the longer you play. It starts off fairly easy giving you only two languages to choose from after hearing an audio snippet of each, quickly increasing in difficulty by adding more and more language options (many of which you may have not even heard of).
There are reported to be roughly six to seven thousand spoken languages in the world and even the most enthused and disciplined hyperpolyglot wouldn’t be able to know them all. So how do we recognize contrasts between languages? Is it instinct? Is it pattern recognition? This is where knowing the differences between language families can become useful.
The more you play, the more you’ll begin to notice sometimes slight distinctions between languages such as in their phonology, intonation, and rhythm.
The game currently features 78 languages. Does it include yours? According to the statistics, the easiest language to decipher is French and the most difficult is Farsi. Click on the image below to play!
Another fun feature to check out is the globe visualization that allows you to see where in the world game players such as yourself are located.
As with language learning, the more you practice the better you’ll get!
So, let us know your native languages and how you’re doing by posting your scores in the comment box below!
Have fun!
PS. Other fun and potentially addicting games to test your worldliness can be found here:
http://world-geography-games.com/
Militza Petranovic
Militza is a Pedagogy and Research intern at Voxy. She is currently finishing up her master’s degree in Applied Linguistics at Columbia University’s Teachers College and received her bachelor’s degree in Theoretical Linguistics from the University of California – Santa Cruz in 2012. Militza is interested in researching all aspects of how web technology can help facilitate learning, particularly language learning.
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