There Is No Cat - How many languages?

A huge orangupoid, which no man can conquer

Friday, June 10, 2005

How many languages?

This one's kind of frightening. Jason Kottke asks how many languages you have in your record collection. This could take weeks to figure out, but here's a first cut based on a couple of hours looking through my CDs.

Albanian: 3 Mustaphas 3
Amharic: Alemayehu Eshete, Mahmoud Ahmed, several other volumes in the Ethiopiques series
Arabic: Khalifa Ould Eide and Dimi Mint Abba, Rasha, 3 Mustaphas 3
Azmari: Volume 2 of Ethiopiques
Balinese: Kecak
Bamanan: Rokia Traore
Bambara: Super Rail Band
Basque: Negu Gorriak
Belarusan: Pesnyarok, Neuro Dubel, Lyapis Trubestskoy
Bemba: Alick Nkhata
Beti: Les Têtes Brulées
Bulgarian: Mystere de Voix Bulgares, Ivo Papasov
Catalan: Dusminguet
Chewa: Kamwendo Brothers Band, Alan Namoko & Chimvu Jazz, Kasambwe Brothers, Alick Nkhata
Czech: Plastic People of the Universe, Matadors, Olympic, Vladimir Misik & Etc. Band, Sto Zvirat, Uz Jsme Doma
Dioula: Les Zagazougou
Efik: E. T. Mensah
English: er....
Estonian: Kirile Loo
Ewe: E. T. Mensah
Fante: E. T. Mensah, The Kumasi Trio
Finnish: Värttina, dozens others
French: Serge Gainsbourg, Francoise Hardy
Fulani: Baaba Maal
Ga: Saka Acquaye and His African Ensemble, E. T. Mensah
German: Blumfeld, Wir Sind Helden, Die Goldenen Zitronen, Attwenger, Hundsbuam Miserablige, Die Knödel
Greek: 3 Mustaphas 3
Hausa: E. T. Mensah
Hebrew: 3 Mustaphas 3
Hindi: 3 Mustaphas 3
Indonesian: Detty Kurnia, Sabah Habas Mustapha
Italian: Alan Lomax Italian Treasury
Japanese: Shonen Knife
Kreyole: Coupe Cloue
Latvian: Ingrid Karklins
Lingala: Franco & O.K. Jazz, Tabu Ley Rochereau, Grand Kalle, Wendo Kolosoy
Luhiya: Abana ba Nasery
Luo: D. O. Misiani and Shirati Band
Macedonian: 3 Mustaphas 3
Magyar: Muszikas
Malagasy: Tarika, Tarika Sammy, Jean Emilien, Jaojoby, Rossy
Mandarin: Cui Jian
Mandinka: Orchestra Baobab, Boubacar Traore
Myene: Pierre Akendegue
Ndebele: African Renaissance - Vol 5
North Sotho: African Renaissance - Vol 5
Norwegian: Kirsten Braten Berg, Annbjorg Lien
Nubian: Ali Hassan Kuban
Nyanja: Alan Namoko & Chimvu Jazz, Alick Nkhata
Okinawan: An Chang Project, Shoukichi Kina
Peul: Ali Farka Toure
Pidgin: George Telek, Not Drowning, Waving
Polish: Klinika, Magic Carpathian Band, Warsaw Village Band
Portuguese: Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, Os Mutantes
Pulaar: Baaba Maal
Punjabi: Bally Sagoo
Rapa: The Tahitian Choir (Rapa Iti)
Rom: 3 Mustaphas 3
Russian: Vladimir Vysotsky, Kino, Aquarium, Sergey Kuriokhin, Popular Mechanics, Leningrad, Tri Debila
Sami: Mari Boine Persen
Serbo-Croatian: Boban Markovic Orkestar, Sviraj, 3 Mustaphas 3
Shona: Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi, James Chimombe, Bhundu Boys
Sonrai: Ali Farka Toure
South Sotho: African Renaissance - Vol 3
Spanish: Manu Chao, Buena Vista Social Club, too many others to mention
Swahili: Abana ba Nasery, Mlimini Park Orchestra, Simba Wanyika
Swazi: African Renaissance - Vol 4
Swedish: Garmarna
Tajik: Oleg Fesov
Tigrigna: Volume 6 of Ethiopiques
Tolai: George Telek
Tswana: African Renaissance - Vol 3
Turkish: 3 Mustaphas 3
Tuvan: Sainkho, Yat-Kha
Twi: Koo Nimo
Ukrainian: Vopli Vidopliasova, Oleg Skrypka, Mandry, Pawlo Humeniuk
Urdu: Nusrat Ali Fateh Khan
Uzbek: Yulduz Usmanova
Venda: African Renaissance - Vol 2
Vietnamese: Ho! Roady Music from Vietnam
Wassoulou: Oumou Sangare
Welsh: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Wolof: Orchestra Baobab, Yousou N'Dour
Xhosa: African Renaissance - Vol 4
Yoruba: King Sunny Ade
Zulu: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Malathini & Mahotella Queens

Note that our albums are still in boxes, so there are probably more, and I couldn't reach some CDs. Plus, some of the CDs I did look at, I wasn't sure what languages they were in. So this is, at a rough guess, maybe 70-80% of the languages in my collection. Or maybe less.

Posted at 12:19 AM

Comments

Note: I’m tired of clearing the spam from my comments, so comments are no longer accepted.

Wow.

I look through that, and some of them I don't have a clue even what coutry they're from.

Impressive, indeed.

The question is though, can you ask for a beer in all of those languages? :)

Posted by sis at 9:04 AM, June 10, 2005 [Link]

I don't think I could ever possibly have the patience to decode which language is being spoken on all of my albums.

Even more so if I included all my CD burns of shortwave logs...!

Posted by myke at 9:40 AM, July 4, 2005 [Link]

Err... Azmaris are musicians. They usually sing in Amharic!

Posted by e at 11:51 PM, October 31, 2005 [Link]

Trackbacks

Back to There Is No Cat

Show me the next item

What do you mean there is no cat?

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

- Albert Einstein, explaining radio