Lars Yencken, a machine learning researcher and language aficionado, recently created a game to test people’s skills at deciphering just a fraction of the 6,500 languages that exist today.
The Great Language Game was built from audio samples taken from news podcasts in 78 different languages. Users are also encouraged to submit audio of languages they left out. Based on the game’s test results, French is the easiest language to identify, while South Efate is the hardest. When the game ends, players receive a handy summary of which languages they missed, along with information about what makes each of those languages unique.
If you are a true polyglot, language lover, or didn’t know what South Efate was before reading this, test your language identification skills and play the game right here.
(via The Great Language Game)
