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Last Week's Quiz

Created by Danielle Ownbey
Edited by Jonpaul Guinn

Read This First

  • Submit your answers by 6:49am ET 7/22/25
  • Don't cheat. Cheating is bad. Using Google IS cheating.
  • Trivia graders don't care about spelling (but try your hardest)
  • No negative points for incorrect responses (so guess to your heart's content)
  • Email [email protected] for clarification on any questions

A short 226 years ago, in July 1799, Lieutenant Pierre-François Bouchard spotted a slab with inscriptions on one side at Rosetta, Egypt.

Not only was the stone the key to deciphering Egyptian scripts, but it's become a worldwide symbol for translation.



To show our thanks for the most useful of rocks, we're going to pay homage to so many of the words that English has borrowed from other languages. We’ll give you some examples of words with foreign etymologies and a fact or two about the other tongue, you tell us the language we’re speaking about.

WORD PLAY Q1. Rife Romance: Avocado, ranch, fiesta, cafeteria: With 500 million speakers, what language claims the most native speakers of any Romance language?



WORD PLAY Q2. Vatican Voices: Bonus, miracle, alibi, data: What dead language has zero native speakers today despite still being the official tongue of Vatican City?



WORD PLAY Q3. Love Language: Denim, genre, boutique, sabotage: What Romance language with 275 million speakers was officially dubbed the “Language of Love” by Google Translate, because it is the most commonly used language into which users translate romantic phrases?



WORD PLAY Q4. Widespread Words: Ketchup, tea, brainwash: With over 1 billion native speakers, what language is the most natively spoken in the world?



WORD PLAY Q5. Lacking Letters: Graffiti, piano, diva, vendetta: You'll probably never see an opera called "La Jack Waxy" since what Romance language has an alphabet that only includes 21 letters, forgoing J, K, W, X, and Y?



WORD PLAY Q6. Triple Typing: Tycoon, emoji, karaoke: With 125 million speakers, what language incorporates three writing systems at once – hiragana and katakana both representing sounds, and kanji representing meanings?



WORD PLAY Q7. Speaking Stocks: Yacht, coleslaw, waffle: What language with 24 million speakers was the official one used to trade tea, tulips, and other commodities at the world’s first stock exchange?



WORD PLAY Q8. Space Speak: Tundra, parka, mammoth, beluga: With 258 million speakers, what language is designated an official language of space alongside English?



WORD PLAY Q9. Reading Right: Algebra, assassin, alcohol: What Semitic language with over 300 million speakers originated these words and would write them right to left?



WORD PLAY Q10. Slang Speak: Klutz, glitch, schmooze: What language with fewer than 1 million speakers today combines Germanic, Hebrew, and Slavic elements to give us some iconic slang words?



TIEBREAKER Egyptian Exhibitions : Of course if you want to see the Rosetta Stone, you will need to go to London as opposed to Egypt as it’s one of the many plundered treasures at the British Museum. Having been discovered in 1799, in what year did it debut at that institution?

Quiz is closed and your answers are now locked! Graders are grading and results will be sent on 7/22/25