wiki-illiam #104: q7

[dubdobdee]

Q7:
i: Which language was developed by a Polish ophthalmologist?
ii: Which language of the Romance group has a definite article suffix?
iii: Of which European language is the origin unknown, even to the experts?
iv: Which geographically Scandinavian language is not linguistically Scandinavian?
v: Which European language is the only survivor of its branch of the Indo-European group?
vi: Which Slavonic language is spoken in a country whose national language is not Slavonic?
vii: Which European language is spoken by about 1% of the population of Switzerland?
viii: Which European language has a past tense form which looks like a future?
xi: Which Slavonic language has done away with the case forms of nouns?
x: Which European national language still retains the dual number?

the rules as they have evolved:
a: nice full answers and anecdotes if poss
b: say if googled or no; leave time for non-googlers to play
c: obviously look ahead at future questions if you want
d: don't bring in confirming or dissenting answers from other fora until next set is up and running

spoilers: language-related obviously -- is i esperanto (but there are other invented languages); iii may be basque?; iv i assume is finnish...

Comments

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

i) Made by a Pole at least; L. Zamenhof.
ii) Romanian I think. IIRC, "the X" = "Xul". (Or is that a plural? Suddenly unsure.)
iii) Agree with Basque.
iv) They probably want Finnish, although it's a bit fishy. For one thing, Finland does not belong to Scandinavia in the narrow sense. Also, Sami languages -- official in parts of actual Scandinavian countries -- are not IE.
v) I assume Greek? It is its own IE branch, and I can't think of any other languages in there.
vi) Must be several surely?
x) I know Icelandic has vestiges of the dual (ie a third form of words in addition to the singular and plural), in that the old dual personal pronoun for "you" is used as a honorific form, but this seems a bit too thin to say it is "retained". (Again, this is very IIRC.)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

which are the slavonic countries? is vi one of the baltic states?

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

That might be my confusion, I was assuming Slavonic = Slavic

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think Slavonic does = Slavic - assume the answer is some Romanian minority language.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

seems plausible that since 1989, one of the "former USSRs" has made non-russian the offical language but lots of people still speak russian?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

When we looked at the actual quiz in the copy of the Guardian I vaguely remember boyofbadgers mentioning Magyar for this one?

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Nah, Magyar is totally non-Slavonic.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the other way round: another Slavonic language is spoken in Hungary where the only official language is Magyar?

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

I would guess that Russian is spoken in all of them to some degree or other. Don't know about its official status.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

There's something called Sorbian spoken in um possibly Germany I think! Not sure of which branch it belongs to.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

This seems like the most likely answer to me, if only because the question seems to be missing an 'only', and Sorb isn't really spoken anywhere else, unlike e.g. Russain.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

this is the first one that I have even been able to guess at the answers except you guessed all 3 of my guesses already :(

(iv might be Icelandic?)

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Icelandic is Scandinavian. Very similar to Old Norse actually.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

v) Albanian? If it's IE at all, that is.
vi) Lusatian Sorb, as only spoken in Lusatia in Eastern Germany?
vii) This is definitely Romansch.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Trying to figure out where Albanian belongs, and I've no idea! Still think Greek fits the bill though.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Wikiing, I find that both seem to be correct here.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

re switzerland at vii -- i assume this ISN'T one of french, german or italian, which ircc are the main languages spoke there, presumably there is a fourth local survivor tongue?

languages it would be fun to see in this question: walloon, manx...

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

I think boyofbadgers is correct with Romansch (= Rhetoromanisch? Rhetian?), the 4th official language of Switzerland.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia is a treasury for these of course, looking up something v important e.g. "Italy" and checking the left sidebar...

Deitsch: "Idali iss en Land in Eiropaa. Die Haaptschtadt iss Rom."

Lëtzebuergesch: "Italien [...] ass e Staat a Südeuropa. Italie grenzt am Norden un d'Schwäiz an Éisträich, am Westen un d'Tyrrhescht- a d'Ligurescht Mier an am Nordwesten u Frankräich."

Limburgs: "Italië [...] is 'n rippebliek in Zuid-Europa op 't glieknaomeg sjiereiland."

Plattdüütsch: "Italien (italieensch Italia) is en Republiek, de in'n Süden vun Europa an't Middelmeer liggt. Navers sünd Frankriek, de Swiez, Österriek, Vatikan, San Marino, Kroatien (de Grenz löppt öber de See) un Slowenien. De Hööftstadt is Rom."

Ripoarisch: "Italie oddo Ëtalije oddo Italië ess_enne Shtaad_en der Medde fun Europa. Rom, woh dr Papß wonnt, eß sing Houpshtadt."

Seeltersk: "Italien is n Lound in Middel-Europa. Ju Haudstääd is Room"

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

In general I find the questions quite sloppy here -- unless there is some other theme or order which pins the intended answers.

gathered answers so far (guesses not googles)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i: esperanto?
ii: romanian?
iii: basque?
iv: finnish?
v: greek or else albanian?
vi: lusatian sorb?
vii: romansch/rhetian
viii: Which European language has a past tense form which looks like a future?
xi: Which Slavonic language has done away with the case forms of nouns?
x: icelandic

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

blimey, this is kind of easy? just a shame that everyone knows the same three or four ;) where is fathands? she will know any outstanding ones i reckons.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

This is not easy! Everyone has the same obvious guesses. These quizzes generally are making me feel v stupid, this is literally the first time I have been able to offer anything other than "uh? what?"

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

yes, i meant "easy for the king will" in that i also knew a couple of the answers off the bat, unlike other days which have involved extensive wikiing.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

everything's easy if you already know it!! we -- ie you, i am meant to be working on my dad's accounts - could start a wing of wiki-illiam on or near a messagelist fathands (and others with lingistic skeez viz jauntyemma) might read?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

ah, soz like, just seen this, we have have power outages here, also you didn't reply to me so i didn't get an email innit ;)

[jauntyemma.livejournal.com]

oh lord clearly my 'acting like you have a clue' skills are in top form (finely honed in the workplace over recent years...) as I have 0 lingistic skeez, the only one I guessed at during a quick glance thru was 3 = Basque.

sorry to be such a dunderheaded let down :)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ha I have no clue about any of these that haven't already been answered (and have actually got WORK to do today so cannot spend time a-googling). HOWEVER x reminds me that although Welsh does not have dual numbers, it has masculine and feminine forms for the numbers 1-4. So you would say 'I have dau brothers' but 'I have dwy sisters'. My linguistic knowledge is pretty poor - I was wondering if many other (Indo-European) languages do this?

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

I don't think so -- even Latin and Ancient Greek stopped at 1 or 2.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

RONG Latin goes to three. Tres - tres - tria (M/F/N)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I know the dual number answer but only cuz I accidentally stumbled across it while wikipedia-ing to find out what a dual number is in the first place.

ix

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

(I seem to be always answering only q9 in each set)

I think it's Bulgarian, although "done away with" may be stretching. 'Almost done away with' might have been more accurate.

[koganbot]

I would like to think that Czech was invented by a Pole. I would also like "Provençal" to be one of the answers, though I haven't chosen the question for it. ("Outside Europe, the language is spoken mainly in California, with small Provençal-speaking communities found in the northern counties of Tehama, Siskiyou, Napa, Alpine, and Mono (most notably in the town of Chalfant Valley).")

I agree with Basque for iii and Greek for v.