What do you know about linguistics?

Quiz Questions

• 1.
  If this is a pun and not a spelling mistake to you, where are you most likely to come from?

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  • A.
    New Zealand
  • B.
    Australia
  • C.
    Wales
  • D.
    South Africa
• 2.
  Who learns faster in the initial stages of second language learning?

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  • A.
    Younger learners (younger than 12 years old)
  • B.
    Older learners (older than 12 years old)
  • C.
    Younger and older learners learn at the same speed
• 3.
  Most people in the world are multilingual, that is, they use different languages for different sorts of interactions on most days.

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  • A.
    True
  • B.
    False
• 4.
  What is the word for ‘author’ in Te Reo Māori...? (Based on these Māori words, with English translations. On the left are verbs, on the right the noun for a person who does that verb.)

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  • A.
    Tutuhi
  • B.
    Kaituhi
  • C.
    Kai
  • D.
    No way to tell from these data
• 5.
  What can a speaker mean when they say “it’s hot in here”?

  • A.
    The temperature is too high
  • B.
    Please open the window
  • C.
    I'm really happy the heater is on
  • D.
    There is someone good looking in the room
  • E.
    It's very cold in here
  • F.
    All the above
• 6.
  What is the word for ‘be angry’ in Khmer...? (Based on these words in Khmer, the official language in Cambodia, with English translations (using a simplified Roman script). On the left are verbs, on the right equivalent nouns.)

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  • A.
    Hong
  • B.
    Kong
  • C.
    Khong
  • D.
    No way to tell from these data
• 7.
  English is spoken as a native language by more people in the world than any other language

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  • A.
    True
  • B.
    False
• 8.
  "Women’s tongues are like lamb’s tails – they are never still." As the proverb says, women talk more than men.

  • A.
    True
  • B.
    False
• 9.
  Which of these pairs of languages are not known to be part of the same language family?

  • A.
    Swedish and Hindi
  • B.
    Te Reo Māori and Tagalog
  • C.
    Mandarin and Sherpa
  • D.
    Farsi (Persian) and Arabic
• 10.
  When you hear the syllable "cap-", the words "captain", "capsize", "caption", etc. are activated. Even in a sentence like "The Prime Minister returned to the capital".

  • A.
    True
  • B.
    False
• 11.
  Deaf people everywhere can communicate because they use basically the same sign language, based on gestures and mimes that have an obvious meaning.

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  • A.
    True
  • B.
    False
• 12.
  Which of these are ways of writing the sound of a kiss, like English “mwah”, in some language in the world?

  • A.
    Chup
  • B.
    Schmatz
  • C.
    Mats-muts
  • D.
    Umma
  • E.
    Chu
  • F.
    All of the above
• 13.
  How many speech sounds can hearing infants distinguish at 6 weeks old?

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  • A.
    None
  • B.
    Vowel sounds but not consonants
  • C.
    Only the sounds of a language that is spoken regularly around them
  • D.
    Over 150 sounds from all the world's languages
• 14.
  What does the Samoan sentence "na si’i le teine e le tama" mean...? (Based on the Samoan sentences below, with English translations.)

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  • A.
    The boy carried the girl
  • B.
    The girl carried the boy
  • C.
    The girl carried the pudding
  • D.
    No way to tell from these data
• 15.
  Which of these is a verb in this poem?

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  • A.
    Brilling
  • B.
    Slithy
  • C.
    Gimble
  • D.
    Borogoves

Quiz Outcomes

• 1.
  You'll love Linguistics at Victoria!

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  If you enjoyed the quiz, and learned something new, you'll enjoy the Linguistics programme at Victoria University. Enrol in LING 111 - Introduction to Linguistics.