Question of the day

GeoffCapes

GeoffCapes

Member
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14,000
Equatorial Guinea? I have shares in a (probably) defunct oil company there, and I just got an update to say there is no news! Pointless email.
 
MarkMas

MarkMas

Chief pedant
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9,025
GeoffCapes said:
And lowest, probably one of the ex Russian states like Kyrgyzstan (if I've spelt it correctly).
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I'm going to give you this one. Yes Kyrgyzstan is 90% consonants. Unless you count 'Y' and an honorary consonant in which case the answer is.....?
 
MarkMas

MarkMas

Chief pedant
Messages
9,025
GeoffCapes said:
Equatorial Guinea? I have shares in a (probably) defunct oil company there, and I just got an update to say there is no news! Pointless email.
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Equatorial Guinea is very, tantalisingly, close, with 37.5% consonants. But there are 4 better ones, I think.
 
MarkMas

MarkMas

Chief pedant
Messages
9,025
MarkMas said:
I'm going to give you this one. Yes Kyrgyzstan is 90% consonants. Unless you count 'Y' and an honorary consonant in which case the answer is.....?
Click to expand...
In fact the top 3 are all 'Y-based':
Kyrgyzstan (90%)
Cyprus (83%)
Egypt (80%)
 
MarkMas

MarkMas

Chief pedant
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9,025
JonW said:
Does Eire count? If not, how about Saudi Arabia?
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Eire doesn't count (I should have specified standard English-language names, etc), but even the Irish don't use Eire, except on their stamps for some reason. Indeed it seems to be a hot issue - I used Eire years ago thinking I was being culturally sensitive, but apparently a Brit saying 'Eire' is not someone syaisng Republic of Ireland in Gaelic, but someone saying 'You people in the southern corner of that island, which we Brits will always own some of'. Confusing.

Saudi Arabia is 36.36% consonants, and I only know of two better than this (at 33.33% and 25%), one of which has almost been named.
 
JonW

JonW

Member
Messages
3,262
MarkMas said:
Eire doesn't count (I should have specified standard English-language names, etc), but even the Irish don't use Eire, except on their stamps for some reason. Indeed it seems to be a hot issue - I used Eire years ago thinking I was being culturally sensitive, but apparently a Brit saying 'Eire' is not someone syaisng Republic of Ireland in Gaelic, but someone saying 'You people in the southern corner of that island, which we Brits will always own some of'. Confusing.

Saudi Arabia is 36.36% consonants, and I only know of two better than this (at 33.33% and 25%), one of which has almost been named.
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Is the 33.33% just Guinea (without the equatorial)?
 
Wanderer

Wanderer

Member
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5,791
MarkMas said:
I'm going to give you this one. Yes Kyrgyzstan is 90% consonants. Unless you count 'Y' and an honorary consonant in which case the answer is.....?
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In Russian it has two ‘ы’ sounds, for the translit ‘y’. Very difficult to pronounce, like saying ‘i’ while being punched in the stomach. And as Russian only has primary stress, not sure how the other ‘y’ is pronounced...

For example unstressed ‘o’ in Russian is pronounced ‘a’ - hence spasibo is spasiba and bolshoy is balshoy...

Knew that Russian degree would help me in the Maserati world eventually......
 
MarkMas

MarkMas

Chief pedant
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9,025
JonW said:
Is the 33.33% just Guinea (without the equatorial)?
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Yes.

But there is still a super-obscure 25% one. Definitely a country, in my view, but has only gradually been becoming fully independent. For example, it is not a member of the UN, but it is a full member of UNESCO.

But if nobody gets it, then we should go with Kyrgyzstan (one point to GeoffCapes) and Guinea (one point to JonW, and half a point to GeoffCapes).

Unless Catman knows the answer to the THIRD part of the question, Which country name has the lowest proportion of vowels to consonants, where 'Y' counts as a vowel?
 
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