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Languages: Find the Odd One Out #1

In each group of four languages, three of them are in the same language family, and one is not; or they may all be in the same family but three of them are in the same branch and one is not. Pick the language that is unrelated to the others, or is less closely related.
To be clear: Don't look for a choice that doesn't fit the category. They all fit the category.
All language classifications are according to Glottolog.
If you're up for a challenge, try quiz #2!
Quiz by Damangio
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Last updated: August 11, 2021
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First submittedJuly 13, 2020
Times taken1,646
Average score47.8%
Rating3.10
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1. The four most spoken languages
Spanish ✓
English ✓
Hindi ✓
Mandarin Chinese ✓
Mandarin Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan Language. The others are Indo-European.
2. The most spoken Germanic languages
Swedish ✓
German ✓
Dutch ✓
English ✓
All are Indo-European languages of the Germanic branch. Swedish is of the North Germanic branch. The others are of the West Germanic branch.
3. Romance languages
Spanish ✓
Italian ✓
French ✓
Romanian ✓
All are Indo-European languages of the Romance branch. Romanian is of the Eastern Romance branch. The others are of the Italo-Western Romance branch.
4. Languages of the Iberian peninsula
Basque ✓
Spanish ✓
Portuguese ✓
Catalan ✓
Basque is an isolate. The others are Indo-European (of the Romance branch).
5. Languages of the British Isles
Irish ✓
English ✓
Scottish Gaelic ✓
Welsh ✓
All are Indo-European languages. English is of the Germanic branch, brought to the British Isles by migrants from the continent. The others are of the Celtic branch.
6. Languages of Nordic countries
Norwegian ✓
Swedish ✓
Finnish ✓
Danish ✓
Finnish is a Uralic language (of the Finnic branch). The others are Indo-European (of the North Germanic branch).
7. Languages of the east Baltic coast
Russian ✓
Estonian ✓
Lithuanian ✓
Latvian ✓
Estonian is a Uralic language (of the Finnic branch). The others are Indo-European (of the Balto-Slavic branch).
8. Languages of central Europe
Czech ✓
Hungarian ✓
Romanian ✓
German ✓
Hungarian is a Uralic language. The others are Indo-European.
9. Languages of Switzerland
Italian ✓
German ✓
Romansh ✓
French ✓
All are Indo-European languages. German is of the Germanic branch. The others are of the Romance branch.
10. Languages of Iran
Luri ✓
Kurdish ✓
Azerbaijani ✓
Persian ✓
Azerbaijani is a Turkic language. The others are Indo-European (of the Iranian branch).
11. Languages of countries that end in "stan"
Tajik ✓
Turkmen ✓
Uzbek ✓
Kazakh ✓
Tajik is an Indo-European language (of the Iranian branch). The others are Turkic.
12. Languages of India
Telugu ✓
Hindi ✓
Marathi ✓
Bengali ✓
Telugu is a Dravidian language. The others are Indo-European (of the Indo-Aryan branch).
13. Languages of Algeria
Kabyle ✓
Arabic ✓
Tuareg ✓
Shawiya ✓
All are Afro-Asiatic languages. Arabic is of the Semitic branch. The others are of the Berber branch.
14. Languages of Nigeria
Igbo ✓
Hausa ✓
Yoruba ✓
Fula ✓
Hausa is an Afro-Asiatic language (of the Chadic branch). The others are Atlantic–Congo languages.
15. Languages of Botswana
Kalanga ✓
Tswana ✓
Kgalagadi ✓
!Xóõ ✓
!Xóõ is a Tuu language. The others are Atlantic–Congo languages (of the Bantu branch).
16. Languages of South Africa
Northern Sotho ✓
Zulu ✓
Xhosa ✓
Afrikaans ✓
Afrikaans is an Indo-European language (of the Germanic branch), brought by Dutch settlers. The others are Atlantic–Congo languages (of the Bantu branch).
17. Religious liturgical languages
Sanskrit ✓
Church Slavonic ✓
Latin ✓
Arabic ✓
Arabic is an Afro-Asiatic language. The others are Indo-European.
18. Liturgical languages of Eastern Orthodox churches
Greek ✓
Church Slavonic ✓
Georgian ✓
Romanian ✓
Georgian is a Kartvelian language. The others are Indo-European.
19. Liturgical languages of Oriental Orthodox churches
Armenian ✓
Syriac (Aramaic) ✓
Geʽez ✓
Coptic ✓
Armenian is an Indo-European language. The others are Afro-Asiatic.
20. Languages of Buddhist texts
Pali ✓
Tibetan ✓
Gandhari ✓
Sanskrit ✓
Tibetan is a Sino-Tibetan language. The others are Indo-European (of the Indo-Aryan branch).
21. Languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet
Russian ✓
Ukrainian ✓
Uzbek ✓
Serbian ✓
Uzbek is a Turkic language. The others are Indo-European (of the Slavic branch).
22. Languages that use the Arabic script
Arabic ✓
Persian ✓
Punjabi ✓
Urdu ✓
Arabic is an Afro-Asiatic language (of the Semitic branch). The others are Indo-European (of the Indo-Iranian branch).
23. Ancient languages that used Phoenician-based writing systems
Greek ✓
Hebrew ✓
Phoenician ✓
Aramaic ✓
Greek is an Indo-European language. The others are Afro-Asiatic (of the Semitic branch).
22 Comments
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Damangio
+4
Level 64
Jul 15, 2021
Since several people didn't read the instructions, I have changed the title and added a caveat to make it clearer what you are supposed to do on this quiz. Hopefully that will take care of the confusion.
chelsea97
+9
Level 78
Jul 14, 2021
This quiz is extremely unclear. For example, all of the languages of Switzerland options are languages of Switzerland.

Good premise for a quiz, just poorly executed unfortunately.

Penguiniman
+8
Level 58
Jul 14, 2021
Yes. This is extremely unclear and inaccurate.

1: Mandarin is the most spoken language by all metrics. It was never specified that it had to be an Indo-European language.

2: It says Germanic languages, not West-Germanic.

3: They are all Romance languages.

4: Basque is on the Iberian peninsula, even though it is not Indo-European.

5: The British Isles is a region, not a language base such as Romance or Germanic.

6: Should have specified in the question for Finnish.

7: Same as above

8: Depends on your definition of Central Europe and AGAIN, you should have specified

9: Question should be "Romance Languages of Switzerland"

10: Should have specified

I'll stop because all the questions are wrong and, unless all of the questions are changed, this is a horrible and inaccurate quiz that shouldn't have been spotlighted. Like chelsea97 said, good premise, badly executed.

bkatur
+7
Level 48
Jul 14, 2021
I feel like someone is salty over getting a bad score, it's very easy to tell the quiz is asking you for the furthest genetic outlier in the 4 offered languages, ie the most distant relative. I didn't need any specifications and I got 22/23 (Got swedish wrong somehow!??)
iuvas
+5
Level 94
Jul 14, 2021
I don't think so. As I said in my comment, the point is that the "which one does not belong" format is intended to use as a question the category to which all of the possible answers belong except the correct one.

Let's take question 1 as an example: usually you would read it as: "which of the following is not one of the four most spoken languages". But all of the 4 answers actually are. So, while it is clear which answer does not belong (at least to anyone with a minimal knowledge of linguistics) the "title" is actually misleading.

Anderis
+3
Level 69
Jul 14, 2021
It's a bit confusing if you don't read the quiz description accurately but once you do, it's very clear what you're supposed to chose- if you have enough knowledge about linguistics- that is.
iuvas
+5
Level 94
Jul 14, 2021
honestly I feel that the previous commenter were right, the quiz is confusing. In my opinion the problem lies in the "doesn't belong" scheme: you should not use as a question the category to which ALL of the answers belong because this way one does not have any hint about the exclusion criterium.

The "explanations", instead are perfect: you just have to switch them as question: for instance I would rephrase Question 1 as: 1. Indo-european languages, question 2 as: West Germanic languages and so on...

Anyway, great idea, it is clear that you know a lot about this topic, may I suggest also to divide it into separate quizzes? 23 questions are quite a lot, maybe you could divide it geographically like: European languages, African languages etc...

Alexquiz17
+1
Level 88
Nov 9, 2022
The exclusion criterion is to answer the question “which language family/branch do they belong to?” and then pick the odd one out. Simples.
kiwiquizzer
+3
Level 68
Jul 14, 2021
Very interesting quiz, I learned a lot, thanks. 52%
CardinalSin
+2
Level 77
Apr 10, 2022
I agree. 61% and learnt loads. Nominated.
SWATkun
+1
Level 60
Jul 14, 2021
Bengali is an Indian languages
Aficionado
+2
Level 73
Jul 14, 2021
Surely, it is! The question asks for the odd one out from Bengali, Hindi, Telugu and Marathi. All of them are Indian languages: three are Indo-Aryan languages while one is Dravidian.
Aficionado
+7
Level 73
Jul 14, 2021
A bit confusing in the start but after reading the description properly, I nailed the quiz. Maybe you should rephrase the title to "Odd One Out" or something like that. Great quiz, anyway!
Ibn
+5
Level 58
Jul 14, 2021
Agree with the comments, the questions could be clarified e.g. "Which of these Germanic languages is the odd one out?"

Brilliant concept though.

Alexquiz17
+2
Level 88
Nov 9, 2022
That’s part of the quiz though, you just need to work it out
JWatson24
+4
Level 71
Jul 14, 2021
Agree with everyone else. Great concept, it should just be made a bit more explicit that you're looking for the one that is least closely related.
Alexquiz17
+1
Level 88
Nov 9, 2022
It’s in the description
DanielSvk
+1
Level 50
Nov 1, 2021
Just want to say that, many of other comments notwithstanding, this was a good and interesting quiz. I mean, if it looks as all the languages in a question have something in common, then, yes, the quizmaster probably meant some other criterion by which one of them doesn't belong.
Kiza
+1
Level 49
Oct 15, 2022
Great quiz
Alexquiz17
+2
Level 88
Nov 9, 2022
Please don’t listen to all the naysayers! Your excellent quiz requires an understanding of language families, branches etc. For example, if we deduce that all the answers are in the same family, then we need to look for one that is from a different branch. Not rocket science, but does pre-suppose a level of knowledge. Love it!
Damangio
+1
Level 64
Nov 24, 2022
Heh, thank you for your vocal support!
KittMonroe
+1
Level 78
Aug 24, 2023
This would be a good quiz if the creator weren't so passive aggressive in the pinned comment!
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