Bing World Languages Quiz – Scripts, Words and Origins
The Bing World Languages Quiz asks you to identify world languages through scripts, borrowed words and surprising linguistic facts, from Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and Hindi to Korean Hangul, Cyrillic, Basque, Swahili and Latin. A writing system can reveal a language's history.
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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds
Speakers
Which language is spoken natively by the most people today?
Scripts
Korea's Hangul alphabet was created under which king in the 15th century?
Scripts
Which direction is Arabic written?
Isolates
Basque, spoken in parts of Spain and France, is unusual because it is what?
Scripts
Which alphabet is used to write Russian?
Africa
Which language is widely used as a common language across East Africa?
Borrowed words
The English word ketchup most likely comes from a word in which part of the world?
Latin
Which languages developed from Latin?
India
Hindi is usually written in which script?
Count
About how many languages are spoken in the world today?
Your score
0/10
Scroll down to see the explanation for each question.
Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions
- Q1: Which language is spoken natively by the most people today?
Answer: Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin has close to a billion native speakers. English has the most speakers when second-language users are counted.
- Q2: Korea's Hangul alphabet was created under which king in the 15th century?
Answer: King Sejong the Great
Hangul was introduced in 1446 so ordinary people could read and write. Korea celebrates Hangul Day every October.
- Q3: Which direction is Arabic written?
Answer: Right to left
Arabic letters change shape depending on their position in a word. Hebrew and Persian are also written right to left.
- Q4: Basque, spoken in parts of Spain and France, is unusual because it is what?
Answer: A language isolate unrelated to any other living language
Basque was spoken in the region before Indo-European languages arrived. Its own name for itself is Euskara.
- Q5: Which alphabet is used to write Russian?
Answer: Cyrillic
Cyrillic developed in the First Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century. It is also used for Ukrainian, Serbian and Bulgarian.
- Q6: Which language is widely used as a common language across East Africa?
Answer: Swahili
Swahili includes many words borrowed from Arabic. Safari comes from the Swahili word for journey.
- Q7: The English word ketchup most likely comes from a word in which part of the world?
Answer: Southeast Asia and southern China
It may come from a Hokkien word for fish sauce. The tomato version developed much later in America.
- Q8: Which languages developed from Latin?
Answer: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian
They are called Romance languages, after Rome. Latin is still used in science and law.
- Q9: Hindi is usually written in which script?
Answer: Devanagari
Devanagari letters hang from a line across the top. The script is also used for Sanskrit, Marathi and Nepali.
- Q10: About how many languages are spoken in the world today?
Answer: About 7,000
Papua New Guinea alone has more than 800 languages. Many languages have only a few speakers left.
Bing World Languages Quiz – Scripts, Words and Origins
About 7,000 languages are spoken in the world today. They are written in many different scripts, borrow words from each other and carry the history of the people who speak them.
Scripts are often the first clue. Arabic is written right to left, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet and Hindi is written in Devanagari. Korean Hangul was designed in the 15th century under King Sejong so that everyone could learn to read.
Language families connect distant places. Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian all developed from Latin, while Basque is an isolate with no known living relatives. Swahili serves as a common language across East Africa.
Words travel too. English borrowed ketchup from Asia and safari from Swahili. Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers in the world, but English has the most speakers overall when learners are counted. Learning even a few words of another language opens a window onto its culture.
You have 150 seconds to answer ten questions in the Bing World Languages Quiz. Every answer comes with a quick explanation, which makes the quiz a good way to learn as well as to test yourself. It works well on a phone, and it is also fun to play aloud with friends or family, taking turns to answer. Many players find that the second attempt goes much better, because the explanations help the facts stick. Share the quiz with a friend and compare your results.
Play the quiz and see how well you can identify languages and scripts.
What This Quiz Teaches
- Writing systems
- Language families
- Languages with the most speakers
- Language isolates
- Borrowed words
- Linguistic diversity
Quick Facts
- Papua New Guinea has the most languages of any country.
- Many languages have no written form.
- UNESCO tracks endangered languages.
- Sign languages are full languages.
- Some languages use tones to change meaning.
- Esperanto was invented in the 1880s.
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