Can You Match the Country to the Language Spoken There?

By: Zoe Samuel
Estimated Completion Time
2 min
Can You Match the Country to the Language Spoken There?
Image: shutterstock

About This Quiz

Our world is incredibly linguistically diverse. There are 196 countries and about 6,500 languages, of which 4,000 have more than 1,000 speakers. The most popular language is Mandarin Chinese, with Spanish and English taking the second and third spots. Of course, some languages are spoken in more than one country, either because of a history of imperialism and war, or because of a shared cultural history where a geographical boundary ends up feeling rather arbitrary. Other languages are spoken only in a single community within a single country, perhaps due to - again - a history of imperialism or perhaps the slow evolution of two cultures which meet and trade ideas, with the smaller group typically adopting the bigger group's language.

Beyond this, there are a number of languages that are only spoken by academics, as they are technically considered to be dead. These include Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Ancient Greek, Latin and a variety of similar languages. They are thus very exclusive and no longer yoked to any particular country, being more a feature of a particular library or educational institution.

This quiz is not about that last group. It's about the glorious, living, messy absurdity of languages that are spoken in one country or several. Can you tell us the country if we give you the language? Let's find out!

What language do they speak in Romania?
Roman
Romanian
French
Belgian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

It's the original Romance language!

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What language do most people speak in Brazil?
Spanish
Brazilian
Portuguese
French
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

People think it's Spanish, but Brazil was a Portuguese colony, meaning that's the main language there now.

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What language does the majority speak in India?
English
Hindi
Punjabi
Bengali
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Hindi is the main language, with over half a billion speakers. English is second at 125 million.

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What language do they speak in Iran?
Iranian
Persian
Arabic
Pashto
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Iranians are ethnically Persian, which is the name of their language.

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What language do they speak in Jordan?
Arabic
Jordanian
Hebrew
English
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Arabic is a little different in each Arab country, but ultimately it's all Arabic!

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What language do they speak in Congo?
French
Congolese
German
English
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Congo is a French ex-colony, and thus French is the main language.

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What language do they speak in Colombia?
Spanish
French
Colombian
Peruvian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Imperialism strikes again! The answer is Spanish.

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What language do they speak in Estonia?
Russian
Estonian
Latvian
Lithuanian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

While certain elements in Russia would like Estonia to be a part of their nation, at the moment, Estonia remains independent and free, meaning Estonian is the official language.

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What language do they speak in Belize?
French
Belizian
Spanish
English
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Belize's name sounds French but actually they speak English there, due to - you've guessed it - more imperialism!

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What language do they speak in Jamaica?
Jamaican
English
French
Cuban
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jamaica actually has a few languages that evolved out of the freed slave populations, but English is dominant.

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What language do they speak in Morocco?
Arabic
Moroccan
French
German
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

European empires have gotten a certain amount of teasing in this quiz so far, so here's another nation whose language can be chalked up to Arab imperialism.

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What language do they speak in Mozambique?
German
English
Mauritian
Portuguese
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Score another point for Portugal, which imposed its language on Mozambique!

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What language do they speak in Mongolia?
Japanese
Chinese
Russian
Mongolian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Mongolia kept its own language despite being colonized by China for a few centuries. This is pretty unusual, as we've seen so far.

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What language do they speak in Kazakhstan?
Kazakh
Tajik
Pashto
Arabic
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

They speak Kazakh! They also speak Russian, due to - you've guessed it - being colonized. Kazakhstan was absorbed into the USSR until 1989.

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What language do they speak in Israel?
English
French
German
Hebrew
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Hebrew is the official language. Most Israelis speak some English, too. There are also lots of Arab Israelis who speak Arabic, as well as Jewish Israelis who speak Arabic too!

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What language do they speak in Turkey?
Arabic
Pashto
Turkish
German
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Turkey was the seat of power of the Ottoman Empire, so it kept Turkish. While the European empires are much spoken of, none of them lasted nearly as long as the Ottoman Empire, which clocked in 644 years.

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What language do they speak in Monaco?
Monagesque
French
Spanish
Italian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

France surrounds Monaco and so linguistically, it invaded with just its mother tongue.

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What language do they speak in Luxembourg?
Luxembourgish
French
German
All of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Luxembourg is so little that residents have to speak a couple languages to get by.

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Other than French, what language do they speak in Belgium?
Belgian
German
Polish
Flemish
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Flemish is from Flanders, and is a type of Dutch. Most Belgians can speak French, but many speak Flemish too.

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Other than French, what language do they speak in Switzerland?
German
English
Austrian
Russian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Switzerland is neutral, meaning it doesn't like to choose between languages. It's mostly French and German, depending on which end of the country you're in.

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What language do they speak in Ireland?
English
Irish
Hiberno-English
All of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ireland has two official languages plus an unofficial third, meaning it uses all three of these languages.

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Other than English, what language do they speak in Scotland?
Pictish
Irish
Welsh
Gaelic
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Gaelic is spoken by the Gaels and their descendants. It's a type of Celtic language.

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What language do they speak in Laos?
Cambodian
Thai
Burmese
Lao
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Laos was colonized by everyone - Japan, Siam, France, etc... and they all canceled each other's languages out, leaving Lao.

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What is the official language of the Philippines?
Arabic
French
Filipino
Spanish
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

171 native languages are spoken in the Philippines, the most prominent being Tagalog. However, in 1987 the government declared Filipino and English to be the national languages of the Philippines. Many people still colloquially refer to it as Tagalog.

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Other than English, what language do they speak in New Zealand?
Maori
Mandarin
Austronesian
Tagalog
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Maori were in New Zealand long before anyone else, and their language survives as they do.

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Other than Portuguese, what language do they speak in East Timor?
Timoerese
Tetum
Filipino
Indonesian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Tetum is a dialect spoken on the whole island of Timor, including Timor-Leste (East Timor), a former Portuguese colony. Tetum is informed by the Portuguese language.

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What language do they speak in Liberia?
Merico
Kreyol
Gola
English
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Liberia speaks English but also 30 other languages. All the options in this question are spoken there but none by a majority, besides English.

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What language do they speak in Rwanda?
Kinyarwanda
English
Swahili
All of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Rwanda hung onto Kinyarwanda, its native tongue, but also uses French, English, and Swahili.

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Besides Georgian, what language do they speak in Georgia (the country, not the state)?
Arabic
Turkish
Abkhaz
Russiah
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

An awful lot of conquering, re-conquering, colonizing, and displacing happened in this part of the world. Abkhaz is a language with about 100,000 speakers in Turkey, Georgia, and nearby nations.

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What language do they speak in Bangladesh?
English
French
Hindi
Bengali
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

English is understood by many Bangladeshis - again, a double-edged gift of the British Empire - but Bengali is the lingua franca.

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What language do they speak in Afghanistan?
English
Russian
Arabic
Pashto
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Afghanistan is the origin of the saying, "Never get involved in a land war in Asia" because its topography means it essentially cannot be controlled from outside. That's why Pashto remains the main language there, despite the efforts of Britain, Russia, China, India and others to change this.

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What language do they speak in Nepal?
Chinese
Hindi
Nepali
Bhutanese
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Nepal is like Afghanistan, astonishingly hard to conquer thanks to its landscape. That means it has historically been very isolated, keeping the Nepali language intact.

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What language do they speak in Eritrea?
Tigrigna
Arabic
English
All of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Eritrea has several languages, a reflection of European and Arab imperialism plus its own status as a rising developing power.

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What language do they speak in Chile?
Chilean
French
English
Spanish
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Chile also survived being colonized, in this instance by Spain, hence they speak Spanish there.

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What language do they speak in the Seychelles?
Seselwa
French
English
All of the above
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Seychelles has three official languages, reflecting its colonized past and its independent present.

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You Got:
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