A different circle

Question

Inspired by this, but different.

A woman is told to make a circle

She makes...

...bread!

Where is the woman? And where is she from?

Hint:

Note that geometry is not in the tags

Hint2:

There are multiple answers. And probably language should be in the tags.

image by fir0002/flagstaffotos.com.au published under GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/panis#/media/File:Breads.jpg says you must provide attribution if you use that image. Please respect copyrights when creating puzzles. — Bass, Feb 12 '18 at 15:04
To be super pedantic, does she just make "bread", or does she make two loaves that look just like those two? — Grimm The Opiner, Feb 12 '18 at 16:14
@GrimmTheOpiner It's just an illustration - any generic bread would do. — Radovan Garabík, Feb 13 '18 at 13:21
Has a correct answer been given? If so, please don't forget to $\color{green}{\checkmark \small\text{Accept}}$ it :) — Rubio, Feb 14 '18 at 07:17

Victor Stafusa - BozoNaCadeia · Answer 1 · 2018-02-13T02:52:44.610

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She is in:

South Africa or Lesotho

And she speaks:

Xhosa or Zulu

Why?

Bread is "isonka" in Xhosa.
Circle is "isangqa" in Xhosa.
Bread is "isinkwa" in Zulu, another language from the same place.

So:

When somebody told her to make isangqa, she didn't heard clearly and understood that she was asked for isonka or isinkwa instead.

Since there are several different dialects of Xhosa and Zulu languages in different regions of South Africa, it is very plausible that miscomunication happens between similar sounding words.

edited Feb 13 '18 at 02:52

answered Feb 13 '18 at 02:37

Victor Stafusa - BozoNaCadeia

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Very good thinking, this is not among those multiple possible answers I had in mind – Radovan Garabík Feb 13 '18 at 13:26
I actually think this is quite unlikely, since the "ngq" in isangqa actually represents the phoneme [ŋ̊!ʰ], a kind of "nasal click" that sounds very different to [k]. – as4s4hetic Feb 14 '18 at 01:34
In fact it's [ŋ!ʱ]* sorry – as4s4hetic Feb 14 '18 at 01:59

rhsquared · Answer 2 · 2018-02-13T13:24:38.180

7

My answer is based on an assumption about the native language of the author. She is in:

Croatia (most likely )or Slovenia

And she speaks:

Croatian or Slovenian

because in these languages:

Croatian Bread-Circle = Kruh-Krug and in Slovenian Bread-Circle=Kruh-Krog. Most likely Croatian.

Close enough to mislead you.

edited Feb 13 '18 at 13:24

answered Feb 13 '18 at 12:26

rhsquared

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Primoz · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-13T23:01:23.883

7

Inspired by rhsquared's answer, I'd guess the woman is from

Slovenia

and is in

Slovakia

Explanation:

Kruh is Slovak for circle and Slovene for bread.
(also Czech, but Slovenia/Slovakia IMO best fits the wordplay tag)
Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kruh (being native in Slovene might have helped me a bit though :))

edited Feb 13 '18 at 23:01

answered Feb 13 '18 at 16:05

Primoz

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Yes, this is the correct answer (or one of them). It would also work with Croatian on one side and (spoken) Belarussian (or those variants of Russian where г is pronounced [ɦ]) on the other. I considered excluding sk/sl/hr/cs speakers from the answering, but that would have been a big hint. – Radovan Garabík Feb 14 '18 at 07:33

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 13 '18 at 11:44

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Ok, I give my first try here, here's what came into my mind, guess I'm not even close though:

she has been told to make a circle, pain circle is a kind of circle, so she made pain (bread in french), so I guess the woman is from France, and she is in a hospital (maybe she works as a cook)

edited Feb 13 '18 at 11:44

Ahmed Ashour

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answered Feb 12 '18 at 14:09

Flying_whale

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How did she make the bread if she's in a hospital? – rhsquared Feb 12 '18 at 14:26
maybe she works as a cook in the hospital – Flying_whale Feb 12 '18 at 14:30
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Welcome to SE Puzzling! Would you elaborate more on your answer? – NL628 Feb 12 '18 at 14:43
I don't really see how I could elaborate more – Flying_whale Feb 12 '18 at 15:21
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I don't understand your answer. What is a "pain circle"? Does that phrase mean something specific in English or French or both? – Jaap Scherphuis Feb 12 '18 at 16:17
@JaapScherphuis mmmh it's'true i get almost no results with "pain circle" on google, I tried with the French "cercle de la douleur" and got many results. That is a vicious circle: if you feel pain you will avoid activity, so you will lose physical condition, so you will be more likely to get hurt and feel pain. – Flying_whale Feb 12 '18 at 17:28
@Flying_whale you are, well, not that close, but at least in the general geographical area :-) – Radovan Garabík Feb 13 '18 at 13:22

A different circle

4 Answers4