Language recognition chart

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This article describes a variety of simple clues one can use to determine what language a document is written in with high accuracy.

Contents

[edit] Characters

You can recognize text in a foreign language by looking up characters specific to that language. For some reason this is often more accurate than language recognition software, which pays little attention to the characters.

[edit] Latin alphabet (possibly extended)

[edit] Romance languages

Lots of Latin roots.

[edit] French

  • Common words: de, la, le, du, des, il, et;
  • Words ending in -x, especially -aux or -eux;
  • Many apostrophised contractions, i.e. words beginning with l' or d'
  • Accented letters: à â ç è é ê î ô û, rarely ë ï, but never á í ì ó ò ú, and ù only in the word où

[edit] Jèrriais

  • Common words: lé, dé, tchi, ès, i', ch'
  • "Tch", "dg", "th" and "în" are common character combinations. "ou" is frequently followed by another vowel.
  • Many apostrophised short forms, e.g. words beginning with l', d' or r'. é frequently alternates with an apostrophe e.g. c'mîn/quémîn.

[edit] Spanish

  • Characters: ¿ ¡ (inverted question and exclamation marks), ñ
  • Acute accents are used on all vowels; (á, é, í, ó, ú)
  • Some words frequently used: de, el, los, la(s), uno(s), una(s), y
  • No apostrophised contractions
  • Word endings: -o, -a, -ción, -miento, -dad
  • Angle quotation marks: « » (though "curly-Q" quotation marks are also used); dialogue often indicated by means of dashes

[edit] Italian

  • Almost every word ends in a vowel. Exceptions include non, il, per, con.
  • Common one-letter word: è
  • Common word: perché
  • Letter sequences: gli, gn, sci
  • Word endings: -o, -a, -zione, -mento, -tà, -aggio
  • Grave accent (e.g., on à) almost always occurs in the last letter of words.
  • Geminate consonants (tt, zz, cc, ss, bb, pp, ll, etc) are frequent.

[edit] Catalan

  • Character combination "l·l"
  • Word endings: -o, -a, -es, ció, -tat
  • Word beginning: ll-

[edit] Romanian

  • Characters: ă â î ş ţ
  • Common words: şi, de, la, a, ai, ale, alor, cu
  • Word endings: -a, -ă, -u, -ul, -ţie (or -ţiune), -ment, -tate
  • Note that Romanian is sometimes written online with no diacritics, making it harder to identify

[edit] Portuguese

  • Common one-letter words: a, à, e, é, o
  • Common two-letter words: ao, as, às, da, de, do, em, os, ou, um
  • Common three-letter words; aos, das, dos, ele, ela, não, por, que, uma, uns
  • Common endings: -ção, -ções, -dade
  • Common digraphs: nh, lh
  • Most singular words end in vowels. Other singular words end in l, m, r, z
  • Plural words end in -s
  • European Portuguese often uses c before ç and t: acção, acto, etc.

[edit] Walloon

  • Characters: å, é, è, ê, î, ô, û
  • Common digraphs and trigraphs: ai, ae, én, -jh-, tch, oe, -nn-, -nnm-, xh, ou
  • Common one-letter words: a, å, e, i, t', l', s', k'
  • Common two-letter words: al, ås, li, el, vs, ki, si, pô, pa, po, ni, èn, dj'
  • Common three-letter words: dji, nos, vos, les, ses, nén, rén, bén, pol, tel, mel
  • Common endings: -aedje, -mint, -xhmint, -ès, -ea, -ou, -owe, -yî, -åcion
  • Apostrophes are followed by a space (preferably non breaking one), eg: l' ome instead of l'ome.

[edit] Germanic languages

[edit] English

  • words: an, in, on, the, that, is, are, I (should always be a capital)
  • letter sequences: th, ch, sh, ough, augh
  • word endings: -ing, -tion, -ed, -age, -s, -’s, -’ve, -n’t, -’d

[edit] Dutch

  • letter sequences ij, ei, doubled vowels, kw, sch,
  • words: het, op, en, een, voor (and compounds of voor).
  • word endings: -tje, -sje, -ing, -en, -lijk,
  • at the start of words: z, v, ge-
  • “t/m” common in between two dates, times or numbers (e.g. house numbers), for example “9 t/m 5”

[edit] German

  • umlauts (ä, ö, ü), eszet (ß)
  • letter sequences: sch, tsch, tz, ss,
  • common words: der, die, das, den, dem, des, er, sie, es, ist, und, oder, aber
  • common endings: -en, -er, -ern, -st, -ung, -chen
  • rare letters: x, y (except in loanwords)
  • long compound words
  • many capitalised words in the middle of sentences

[edit] Swedish

  • common words: och, i, att, det, en, som, det, är, av, den, på
  • long compound words
  • letter sequences: stj, sj, skj, tj

[edit] Baltic languages

[edit] Latvian

  • uses diacritics: ā, č, ē, ģ, ī, ķ, ļ, ņ, ō, ŗ, š, ū, ž
  • does not have letters: Q, W, X, Y
  • extremely rare doubling of vowels
  • rare doubling of consonants
  • a period (.) after ordinal numbers, e.g. 2005. gads
  • common words: "ir", "bija", "tika", "es", "viņš"

[edit] Slavic languages

[edit] Polish

  • consonant clusters "rz", "sz" , "cz", "prz", "trz";
  • uses : ą , ę , ć , ś , ł , ó , ż , ź
  • words "i", "w";
  • word "się".

[edit] Czech

  • visual abundance of letters "ž,š,ů,ě,ř";
  • words "je", "v";
  • to distinguish from Slovak: does not use ä, ľ, ĺ, ŕ or ô.

[edit] Slovak

  • visual abundance of letters "ž, š, č";
  • uses : ä, ľ, ĺ, ŕ and ô;
  • typical suffixes: -cia, -ť,
  • to distinguish from Czech: does not use ě, ř or ů;

[edit] Celtic languages

[edit] Welsh

  • letters Ŵ, ŵ unique to Welsh
  • words y, yr, yn, a, ac, i, o
  • letter sequences wy, ch, dd, ff, ll, mh, ngh, nh, ph, rh, th, si
  • letters not used: k, q, v, x, z
  • letter only used rarely, in loanwords: j
  • commonly accented letters: â, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ
  • word endings: -ion, -au, -wr, -wyr
  • y is the most common letter in the language
  • circumflex accent (^) is by far the commonest diacritical mark.

[edit] Iranian languages

[edit] Kurdish

  • The word "xwe" (oneself, myself, yourself etc.) is highly specific (xw combination) and frequent.
  • kir

[edit] Finno-Ugric languages

[edit] Finnish

  • distinct letters ä and ö; but never õ or ü
  • common words: sinä, on
  • common endings: -nen, -ka/-kä, -in
  • common letter combinations: yö, ei, äi
  • unusually high degree of letter duplication, both vowels and consonants

[edit] Estonian

  • distinct letters: ä, ö, õ and ü; but never ß or å
  • f, z, š and ž appear in loanwords and proper names only; the last two are substituted with sh or zh in some texts
  • c, q, w, x, y appear in (typically foreign) proper names only
  • similar to Finnish, except:
    • letter õ is unique to Estonian
    • words end in consonants more frequently than in Finnish
  • common words: ja, on, ei, ta, see

[edit] Hungarian

  • letters Ő, Ű, ő and ű unique to Hungarian
  • letter combinations: sz, gy, cs, leg‐, ‐obb
  • common words: a, az, ez, egy, és, van

[edit] Southern Athabaskan languages

  • vowels with acute accent, ogonek (nasal hook), or both: á, ą, ą́
  • doubled vowels: aa, áá, ąą, ą́ą́
  • slashed l: ł
  • n with acute accent: ń
  • quotation mark: ' or ’
  • sequences: dl, tł, tł’, dz, ts’, ií, áa, aá
  • may have rather long words

[edit] Western Apache

In addition to the above,

  • may use: u or ú
  • may use vowels with macron: ā ą̄
  • does not use ų

[edit] Navajo

In addition to the above,

  • does not use u, ú, or ų

[edit] Chiricahua or Mescalero

In addition to the above,

  • uses: u, ú, ų
  • does not use o, ó, or ǫ

[edit] Japanese in Romaji

  • words: "desu", "masu", "aru", "suru", esp. at end of sentences;
  • letters: nearly 50% vowels (a e i o u);
  • letters: no consonants, except "n" and "h", at end of words
  • a macron or circumflex may be used to indicate doubled vowels, eg. Tōkyō

[edit] Vietnamese

  • Roman characters with many diacritical marks on vowels. See above.
  • Almost all written words are quite short (one syllable).
  • Words beginning with "ng"
  • common words: "cái", "không", "có", "ở"

[edit] VIQR

  • The following characters (often in combination) after vowels: ^ ( + ' ` ? ~ .
  • DD, Dd, or dd
  • The following character before punctuation: \

[edit] VNI

  • The digits 1-8 after vowels
  • The digit 9 after a D or d
  • The following character before numbers: \

[edit] Telex

  • The following characters after vowels: s f r x j
  • The following vowels, doubled up: a e o
  • The letter "w" after the following characters: a o u
  • DD, Dd, or dd

[edit] Chinese, Romanized

[edit] Standard Mandarin

  • In general, Mandarin syllables end only in n, ng, r; never in p, t, k, m

[edit] Pinyin
  • Words beginning with x, q, zh
  • Tone marks on vowels, such as ā, á, ǎ, à
    • For convenience while using a computer, these are sometimes substituted with numbers, e.g. a1, a2, a3, a4

[edit] Wade-Giles
  • Words do not begin with b, d, g
  • Words beginning with hs
  • Many hyphenated words
  • Apostrophes, e.g. t`a, ch`i (Note: These apostrophes are often omitted)

[edit] Gwoyeu Romatzyh
  • Many unusual vowel combinations such as ae, eei, ii, iee, oou, yy, etc.
  • Insertion of r, e.g. arn, erng, etc.
  • Words ending in nn, nq

[edit] Standard Cantonese

  • In general, Cantonese syllables can end in p, t, k, m, n, ng; never r

[edit] Minnan in Pe̍h-oē-jī

  • Many hyphenated words.
  • Words can end in p, t, k, m, n, ng, h; never r
  • Roman characters with many diacritical marks on vowels. Unlike Vietnamese, each character has at most one such mark.
  • Unusual combining characters, namely · (middle dot, always after "o") and | (vertical bar). - (macron) is also common.

[edit] Turkish

Note that some Turkic languages like Azeri and Türkmen use a similar Latin alphabet and similar words, and might be confused with Turkish. Azeri has the letters Əə, Xx, Jj and Qq not present in the Turkish alphabet, and Türkmen has Ää, Jj, Žž, Ňň and Ýý.

[edit] Turkish Alphabet

Lowercase: a b c ç d e f g ğ h ı i j k l m n o ö p r s ş t u ü v y z

Uppercase: A B C Ç D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü V Y Z

[edit] Common words

  • bir — one, a
  • bu — this
  • fakat — but
  • oldu — was
  • şu — that

[edit] Misc.

  • Look for word endings. Tense changes in Turkish verbs are created by adding suffixes to the end of the verb. Pluralizations occur by adding -lar and -ler.
    • Common Tense Changes: -mış -muş -sun
    • Possessivity/person: -im -un -ın -in -iz -dur -tır
    • Example: Yapmıştır, "[He] did it"; Yap is the verb stem meaning "to do", -mış indicates the perfect tense, -tır indicates the third person (he/she/it).
    • Example: Adalar, "Islands"; Ada is a noun meaning "island", -lar makes it plural.)
    • Example: Evimiz, "Our house"; Ev is a noun meaning "house", -im indicates the first-person possessor, which -iz then makes plural.)

[edit] Chinese

  • No spaces
  • Arabic numerals (0-9) sometimes used
  • Punctuation:
    • Period 。(not .)
    • Serial comma 、(distinguished from the regular comma ，)
    • Ellipse …… (six dots)
  • No hiragana, katakana, or hangul
  • May be written vertically

[edit] Simplified Chinese vs Traditional Chinese

Note: Many characters were not simplified. As a result, it is common for a short word or phrase to be identical between Simplified and Traditional, but it is rare for an entire sentence to be identical as well.

Common radicals different between Traditional and Simplified:

  • Simplified: 讠钅饣纟门(e.g. 语 银 饭 纪 问)
  • Traditional: 訁釒飠糹門(e.g. 語 銀 飯 紀 問)

Common characters different between Traditional and Simplified:

  • Simplified: 国 会 这 来 对 开 关 门 时 个 书 长 万 边 东 车 为 儿
  • Traditional: 國 會 這 來 對 開 關 門 時 個 書 長 萬 邊 東 車 為 兒

[edit] Standard written Chinese (based on Mandarin) vs written Vernacular Cantonese

Note: Cantonese-speakers live in Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau, so written Cantonese can be written in either Simplified or Traditional characters.

Common characters in Vernacular Cantonese that do not occur in Mandarin (only characters that are the same between Traditional and Simplified are chosen here):

  • 嘅 咗 咁 嚟 啲 唔 佢 乜 嘢

Some of the above characters are not supported in all character encodings, so sometimes the 口 radical on the left is substituted with a "0" or "o", e.g.

  • o既 0既

[edit] Japanese

  • Katakana (カタカナ) and hiragana (ひらがな) characters mixed with kanji (漢字）
  • Few or no spaces
  • Arabic numerals (0-9) sometimes used
  • Punctuation:
    • Period 。
    • Comma 、(，also used)
    • Quotation marks 「」
  • Occasional small letters beside large ones, eg. しゃ　りゅ　しょ　って　シャ　リュ　ショ　 ッテ
  • Double tick marks appearing at upper right of letters, eg. で　が　ず　デ　ガ　ズ
  • Empty circles appearing at upper right of letters, eg. ぱ　ぴ　パ　ぴ
  • Frequent characters: の　を　は　が
  • May be written vertically

[edit] Korean

  • Western-style punctuation marks
  • Western-style spacing
  • Hangul letters, e.g. ㅎ h, ㅇ ng, ㅂ b, etc.
  • Hangul letters used to form syllable blocks; e.g. ㅅ s + ㅓ eo + ㅇ ng = 성 seong

[edit] Greek

Modern Greek is written with Greek alphabet in monotonic, polytonic or atonic, either according to Demotic (Mr. Triantafilidis) grammar or Katharevousa grammar. Some people write in Greeklish (Greek with Latin script) which is either Visual-based, orthographic or phonetic or just messed-up (mixed). The only official forms of Greek language are the Monotonic and Polytonic.

[edit] Normal Modern Greek (Greek Monotonic)

  • words "και", "είναι";
  • Each multi-syllable word has one accent/tone mark (oxia): ά έ ή ί ό ύ ώ
  • The only other diacritic ever used is the trema: ϊ/ΐ, ϋ/ΰ, etc.

[edit] Ancient or pre-1980's Greek (Greek Polytonic)

  • This is Katharevousa or some mixed form of Demotiki (Triantafilidis' grammar) and Katharevousa;
  • You will notice several accents/tones. Examples: ~ ` and oxia (looks like 'ί);
  • You may also notice this: ΐ, ΰ. ϊ, ϋ etc.

[edit] Greek Atonic

  • Was common in some Greek media (television);
  • You will see Greek characters without accents/tones;
  • words: "και, ειναι, αυτο".

[edit] Greek in Greeklish

  • Automated conversion software for Greeklish->Greek conversion exists. If you notice a Greeklish text it may be useful for the Greek el.wikipedia (after conversion).
  • Keep in mind: in Greeklish more than one characters may be used for one letter. (example: th for theta).

[edit] Orthographic Greeklish

  • words "kai", "einai".

[edit] Phonetic Greeklish

  • words "ke", "ine";
  • omega appears as o;
  • ei, oi appear as i;
  • ai appears as e.

[edit] Visual-based Greeklish

  • omega (Ω or ω) may appear as W or w;
  • epsilon (E) may appear as "3";
  • alpha (A) may appear as "4";
  • theta (Θ) may appear as "8";
  • upsilon (Y) may appear as "\|/";
  • More than one characters may be used for one letter.

[edit] Messed-up (Mixed) Greeklish

  • words "kai", "eine";
  • combines principles of phonetic, visual-based and orthographic Greeklish according to writer's idiosyncrasy;
  • The most commonly used form of Greeklish.

[edit] Armenian language

Armenian can be recognised by its unique 38-letter alphabet:

Ա Բ Գ Դ Ե Զ Է Ը Թ Ժ Ի Լ Խ Ծ Կ Հ Ձ Ղ Ճ Մ Յ Ն Շ Ո Չ Պ Ջ Ռ Ս Վ Տ Ր Ց Ւ Փ Ք Օ Ֆ

[edit] Georgian language

Georgian can be recognised by its unique alphabet.

ა ბ გდ ევ ზ ჱ თ ი კ ლ მ ნ ჲ ო პ ჟ რ ს ტ ჳ უ ფ ქ ღ ყ შ ჩ ც ძ წ ჭ ხ ჴ ჯ ჰ ჵ ჶ ჷ ჸ

[edit] Malay and Indonesian

May contain the following:
Prefixes: me-, mem-, memper-, pe-, per-, di-, ke-
Suffixes: -kan, -an
Others (these almost always written in lower case): yang, dan, di, ke

Malay and Indonesian are mutually intelligible to proficient speakers, although translators and interpreters will generally be specialists in one or other language.


[edit] Artificial languages

[edit] Esperanto

  • words: de, la, al, kaj
  • Five unique letters: ĉ Ĉ ĝ Ĝ ĥ Ĥ ĵ Ĵ ŝ Ŝ
  • words ending in o, a, oj, aj, on, an, ojn, ajn, as, os, is, us, u, i, aŭ

[edit] Klingon

  • When written in the Latin alphabet Klingon has the unusual property of a distinction in case; "q" and "Q" are different letters. This causes a large number of words that look quite strange to people who aren't used to it, for example: "yIDoghQo'", "tlhIngan Hol".

[edit] Lojban

  • starts with "ni'o" or ".i" (or "i");
  • has many words like "ko'a" "pi'o" etc;
  • all lowercase;
  • usually no punctuation except for dots.
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