Quiz on Grandma Words: Do You Know Parpalas, Šepte and Ķēķis?

Latvijas Avīze, a Latvian daily newspaper, has published a quiz on its website that lets readers check whether they can understand what their grandmothers say without asking for an explanation. The quiz has 10 questions and aims to show how well a person knows the vocabulary of the older generation.

What the quiz is about

According to the publication, grandmothers' speech has a special charm. It contains words and expressions that were once heard everywhere, but which now sometimes sound almost like a foreign language to younger people. Some seem self-evident, others can be guessed from context, and some may come as a real surprise.

The headline names three examples: "parpalas", "šepte" and "ķēķis".

A sample question

The first question is built around the sentence "Nemētā tās parpalas pa visu istabu!", roughly "Don't scatter those parpalas all over the room!". Readers must choose what "parpalas" means from three options: toys, papers and newspapers, or clothes and items of clothing.

Readers can give their answers on the publication's page. The quiz belongs to the outlet's entertainment content and is not linked to any specific event or study.