This is my 100% factual and totally accurate (I lie) guide to very specific languages with very little correlation to each other
In all seriousness, this “guide” is more so my opinions on how certain languages look and how to differentiate between certain similar ones (Asian and European ones)
DISCLAIMER:
I, clearly, am no expert (Just look at my elo TvT). Don’t rage at me if you lose a game bc of this or smth.
My goal here is to find differences between similar languages without making it super hard to remember
Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin:
(Note: Due to China’s lack of coverage, if you spot Mandarin in a game it is likely Taiwan or another Mandarin speaking country.)
Okay, so here’s my amazing observation on these three languages:
Korean is just circles, and Mandarin is blocks.
I’m being serious.
Here’s some sample text in Korean:
“이것은 예시 문장입니다. 안녕하세요? 신사 숙녀 여러분. 저는 나이가 많습니다. 저는 한국에서 왔습니다.”
Do you see how many circles there are in that?!
Now here’s that same phrase in Japanese:
“これは例文です。 こんにちは、お元気ですか？（男性の方、女性の方）私は年配の者です。韓国出身です。”
There’s like….three circles. And they aren’t the same as the Korean circles.
Now here’s that same phrase in Mandarin:
“这是一段示例文本。 您好，您好吗？先生，女士。我年纪大了。我来自韩国。”
See how much more compact and blocky Mandarin is?
So, to summarize;
Mandarin is blocky, Japanese is less compact and has more space in between lines and marks within words/letters, and Korean has lots of circles within words/letters.
Hindi and Punjabi:
(Note: Punjabi is mostly spoken around Northwest India.)
Here’s my insight on Hindi:
Punjabi is bendier than Hindi.
Hindi is easy to spot because of its lines on the top, but it’s very similar to Punjabi, and knowing the regional difference might gain you some valuable points.
Here’s some Hindi sample text:
“यह एक उदाहरण टेक्स्ट है। नमस्ते, आप कैसे हैं? सर, मैम। मैं बूढ़ा हूँ। मैं कोरिया से हूँ।”
Now here’s that text in Punjabi:
“ਇਹ ਇੱਕ ਉਦਾਹਰਣ ਵਾਲਾ ਪਾਠ ਹੈ। ਸਤਿ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ, ਤੁਸੀਂ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਹੋ? ਜਨਾਬ/ਮੈਡਮ। ਮੈਂ ਬਜ਼ੁਰਗ ਹਾਂ। ਮੈਂ ਕੋਰੀਆ ਤੋਂ ਹਾਂ।”
When you look above the top line of the words, you’ll notice that Punjabi bends over into it more.
Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Belarusian:
I actually….don’t have insight for these ones
You can’t really eyeball these languages, you have to actually pay attention to the letters TvT
Russian:
“Это пример текста. Здравствуйте, как у вас дела? Сударь, сударыня. Я пожилой человек. Я из Кореи.”
Ukrainian:
“Це зразок тексту. Вітаю, як у вас справи? Пане, пані. Я літня людина. Я з Кореї.”
Bulgarian:
“Това е примерен текст. Здравейте, как сте? Господине, госпожо. Аз съм възрастен. От Корея съм.”
Belarusian:
“Гэта прыклад тэксту. Добры дзень, як у вас справы? Спадар, спадарыня. Я пажылы чалавек. Я з Карэі.”
Look out for certain letters such as these:
If it has Є or ï, it’s Ukrainian
If it has Ў, it’s Belarusian
If there’s none of the above, it’s likely Russian.
One way to differentiate Russian and Bulgarian is to know that Bulgarian doesn’t have Ë, Э, or Ы
Although, Bulgarian uses Ъ very frequently, while Russian scarcely has Ъ in sentences/words.
German and Polish:
Here’s my insight for these two:
Polish is so extra
German:
“Dies ist ein Beispieltext. Hallo, wie geht es Ihnen? Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren. Ich bin alt. Ich komme aus Korea.”
Polish:
“To jest przykładowy tekst. Dzień dobry, jak się Pan/Pani miewa? Proszę Pana, proszę Pani. Jestem starszą osobą. Pochodzę z Korei.”
You’ll notice that Polish has wayyy more fancy symbols and letters than German does.
Also, if it says “ł” that’s pretty much a dead giveaway that it’s Polish.
Another tip for German and Polish is that if you can read it, it’s most likely German; if you cannot, it’s probably Polish
If you see any of these letters or letter combinations, especially multiple, it’s almost certainly polish:
ę, ś, ć, ł, ą, cz, dz, sz, rz, rdz, zd, ws, wt, cj, wy
if you see any of these it’s almost certainly german:
ä, ö, ü, sch
Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish (WIP)
My insight for these three:
Swedish has more symbol thingies
Norwegian:
“Dette er en eksempeltekst. Hei, hvordan står det til? Herre, frue. Jeg er gammel. Jeg er fra Korea.”
Swedish:
“Detta är en exempeltext. Hej, hur mår ni? Ni. Jag är gammal. Jag kommer från Korea.”
Danish:
“Dette er en eksempeltekst. Hej, hvordan har du det? Hr., fru. Jeg er gammel. Jeg er fra Korea.”
Swedish, noticeably, has more letters with accent marks, such as Ä and Å. Neither Danish nor Norwegian (hah, see what I did there?) have the Ä or Ö symbol.
From here it gets trickier.
Norwegian and Danish both use Å, Æ, and Ø, so those symbols can’t be used to differentiate them.
Honestly, I’m not quite sure how to differentiate between Danish and Norwegian.
The only note I have is that Danish seems to have slightly shorter words?
Czech and Slovak:
Insight:
Czech has extremely unique letters
Czech:
“Toto je ukázkový text. Dobrý den, jak se máte? Pane, paní. Jsem starý. Jsem z Koreje.”
Slovak:
“Toto je ukážkový text. Dobrý deň, ako sa máte? Pán, pani. Som starý. Som z Kórey.”
While looking at these two phrases specifically, there’s not much of a difference, but if you look at each languages alphabet, that’s where the differences start to show up.
Slovak uses letters such as Ľ and Ä, while Czech does not.
Czech also uses the Ř symbol, which is almost exclusive to just Czech. (although it is found in other languages such as Romani, Piemontese, and Silesian)
So if you see Ř, it’s likely Czech.
If you see Ľ or Ä (Ä is used in many other languages, though) it’s likely Slovak.
Tamil and Sinhala:
Note: Both of these languages are spoken and commonly used in Sri Lanka.
Heres my insight for this pair:
Sinhala is rounder
Take a look:
Sinhala:
“මෙය ආදර්ශ පාඨයකි. ආයුබෝවන්, ඔබට කොහොමද? මහත්මයාණෙනි, මැතිනියනි. මම වයස්ගත පුද්ගලයෙක්මි. මම කොරියාවේ සිට පැමිණියෙකි.”
Tamil:
“இது ஒரு மாதிரி உரை. வணக்கம், எப்படி இருக்கிறீர்கள்? ஐயா, அம்மா. நான் வயதானவன். நான் கொரியாவைச் சேர்ந்தவன்.”
If you compare the symbols, you’ll notice that Sinhala has more rounded, circular letters/words, while Tamil has more letters with sharp edges.
Lao, Thai, and Khmer:
(Note: this one’s kinda shorter than the rest, sorry y’all TvT)
Okay, so one thing I’m immediately noticing is that Khmer seems to have more jagged edges than Lao or Thai?
Take a look:
“នេះគឺជាអត្ថបទគំរូ។ សួស្តី តើអ្នកសុខសប្បាយជាទេ? លោក ឬអ្នកនាង។ ខ្ញុំមានវ័យចំណាស់។ ខ្ញុំមកពីប្រទេសកូរ៉េ។” (This is Khmer)
Now heres that in Thai:
“นี่คือข้อความตัวอย่าง สวัสดีครับ/ค่ะ สบายดีไหมครับ/คะ ผม/ฉันอายุมากแล้ว ผม/ฉันมาจากประเทศเกาหลี”
And here’s that phrase in Lao:
“ນີ້ແມ່ນຂໍ້ຄວາມຕົວຢ່າງ. ສະບາຍດີ, ທ່ານສະບາຍດີບໍ່? ຂ້າພະເຈົ້າເປັນຜູ້ສູງອາຍຸ. ຂ້າພະເຈົ້າມາຈາກປະເທດເກົາຫຼີ.”
Lao seems like it’s more…wispy, if that makes sense? It’s like it bends more than Thai or Khmer.
Thai also seems to be much more blocky than Lao.
Portuguese(Portugal) and Spanish(Spain): (WIP)
(Note: This one was/is an absolute pain to make ;-;)
Spanish:
“Este es un texto de ejemplo. Hola, ¿cómo está? Señor, señora. Soy mayor. Soy de Corea.”
Portuguese:
“Este é um texto de exemplo. Olá, como está? Senhor, senhora. Sou idoso. Sou da Coreia.”
Really, Portuguese is just Spanish but down a block and to the left.
I don’t want to leave it at that though.
Spanish and Portuguese are genuinely so similar, it’s difficult to tell them apart 
However, Spanish uses the ¿ symbol, while Portuguese does not!
Just like English, Portuguese only uses the ? symbol for questions.
Another difference:
Portuguese uses à (ã) while Spanish does not, and Spanish uses Ñ (ñ) while Portuguese doesn’t.
(I’m not done with this one by any means, but js take this for now TvT)
Kannada and Telugu:
This entire section is courtesy of @Babylonian_Fatty
Thank you so much!! :D
This is a picture of the Sinhala alphabets.
this is an image of the Kannada alphabet
this is an image of the Telugu alphabet
As you can see, Sinhala is still differentiable but Kannada and Telugu have almost identical letters.
Learning these differences is a little hard so relying more on region specific clues would be advisable but here are some letters you can keep in mind (here small letter indicates a short/soft sound and a capital indicates a long/hard one)
-
Main difference
Telugu commonly has many tick marks above its letters which isn’t common in Kannada.
They look like this, and are mostly found above consonant sounds.
-
Matras (accents on letters)
you will find many accents on letters across most Indian languages. there are some visible differences between Kannada and Telugu accents.these are Kannada accents (on the right)
these are Telugu accents (blue charecters)
-
The letters for the u and U sound
these are unique to Kannada
these are unique to Telugu -
The ru sound
There is only one ru sound on Kannada but there are 2 forms in Telugu (hard and soft)
this is the Kannada ru
these are the Telugu ru -
The ka sound
this is the ka sound in Kannada
this is the ka sound in Telugu -
The cha sound
Use this tip with caution as the Kannada cha is unique but looks similar to other letters (in both languages)
There is a stack of curves on the top left corner
not to be confused with these symbols in Telugu.
Note that there are different styles and fonts of writing throughout India which may not look exactly as depicted but will follow similar patterns.
Galician and Portuguese(courtesy of Mangocheese19):
From Plonk It: Galician can look very similar to Portuguese. Some ways to tell them apart is the use of ñ and the lack of ç in Galician.
Streets are commonly called Rúa in Galicia, whereas in Portugal they are called Rua(without an accent). However, you can sometimes find signs without the accent in Galicia.
What I noticed: The Portuguese version of ñ is nh, (eg. Galician is señor while Portuguese is senhor.) Additionally, the word for I am in Spanish is soy. In Galician, it is son. In Portuguese, it is sou. Adding on to the ñ vs nhthing, Portuguese will also add the h after ltoo, while Galician’s spelling is more based on Spanish (eg. the Galician word for mirror is espello while Portuguese is espelho).
You can see the sample text here.
Galician: Este é un texto de exemplo. Ola, como está? Señor, señora. Son vello. Son de Corea.
Portuguese: Este é um texto de exemplo. Olá, como está? Senhor, senhora. Sou idoso. Sou da Coreia.
Spanish and Catalan(courtesy of mangocheese19):
Plonk It: The only difference Plonk It listed vs. Spanish was that Catalan uses i instead of y(or in some cases e) for and.
What I noticed: First of all, Catalan shares official language status in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community, which are all regions of Spain, and is the sole official language in Andorra. If you see Catalan, therefore, you are most likely to be in northeastern Spain, near Barcelona.
Spanish: Este es un texto de ejemplo. Hola, ¿cómo está? Señor, señora. Soy mayor. Soy de Corea.
Catalan: Aquest és un text d’exemple. Hola, com estàs? Senyor, senyora. Sóc gran. Sóc de Corea.
First off, I’m definitely noticing a bit of French influence (d’exemple), [to be expected since Catalan is technically more closely related to French than Spanish] though it also looks similar to Spanish.
There are lots of differences, though. Catalan uses the grave (à) which does not exist in Spanish while also using the acute (á).
Catalan also seems to use more accent marks overall, which is more reminiscent of French when comparing it to Spanish.
Another thing:
Catalan doesn’t have the letter Ñ like Spanish does. (Ex. “Señor” and “Senyora”)
Other than that, Catalan just gives off a different vibe than Spanish. You can look at the example text for yourself and discover other differences, but I’ll just leave it at that :)
Baltic Languages(courtesy of mangocheese19):
How to differentiate between Baltic languages.
I also added Finnish in here since it was similar to Estonian.
It’s always helpful to have a guide for these languages especially when their landscapes can be hard to differentiate, so here we go.
Lithuanian: Tai yra pavyzdinis tekstas. Sveiki, kaip laikotės? Pone, ponia. Esu senas. Esu iš Korėjos.
Latvian: Šis ir teksta piemērs. Sveiki, kā jums klājas? Kungs, kundze. Esmu vecs. Esmu no Korejas.
Estonian: See on näidistekst. Tere, kuidas teil läheb? Härra, proua. Ma olen vana. Ma olen pärit Koreast.
Finnish: Tämä on esimerkkiteksti. Hei, mitä kuuluu? Herra, rouva. Olen vanha. Olen kotoisin Koreasta.
Immediately, we can see that Finnish and Estonian are very similar, both having many umlauts (ä). If I had to pick one difference, it would be that Finnish has way more double letters like uu or kk. With languages that are that similar, that’s basically all I can distinguish. (Estonian uses ü and õ, which are not used in Finnish [From Plonk It])
For Latvian and Lithuanian, I think it’s best to look at their alphabets.
Latvian:
Lithuanian:
Latvian has much more macrons (ā), having them over the a, e, i, and u. Lithuanian only has them over the u. Lithuanian also has ą, ę, į, and ų while Latvian has none of those. Past diacritical marks, though, I have no idea how to distinguish them.
If you see umlauts, it will be Finnish or Estonian. If you see any other special character, it will be Latvian or Lithuanian (except for the O with a tilde which is unique to Estonian).
Plonk It has all the names for streets in the different languages, which I have included below.
Estonian word for street: tänav (abbreviated as tn) and tee.
Latvian: iela.
Lithuanian: gatve, abbreviated as g. (also seen in Riga, abbreviated as gat.)
Finnish: Mostly words ending in tie or katu, also sometimes polku and kuja.
With that, my guide is finished and from now on I’ll let @Lemon_Cat do the rest of the languages :)
That’s all the tips I’ve got for now!
More might be added, but lmk if you have a specific pair you want to be added.
Thank you to @PandaKai7 for helping with the Russian/Bulgarian/Ukrainian/Belarusian section (also for helping me with the drafts. Ty twin ^v^)
Thank you @I_YEET_GRANMAS for helping w/ the German/Polish section! <3
Thank you to @mangocheese19 for helping w/ the Portuguese/Spanish section and making the Portuguese/Galician section, as well as making the Spanish/Catalan section, and the Baltic languages section! :]
Thank you to @greafer for helping w/ the Russian/Bulgarian/Ukrainian/Belarusian section! :D
Thank you to @Solent for your help with the German/Polish section! :)
English translation of the sample text:
“This is example text. Hello, how are you? Sir, ma’am. I am old. I am from Korea.”
