Final Jeopardy: World Languages (4-27-26)
The Final Jeopardy question (4/27/2026) in the category “World Languages” was:
Of South Africa’s 12 official languages, these 2 are alphabetically first & last
31x champ Jamie Ding, a bureaucrat & law student from Lawrenceville, NJ, is up to $882,605. If he wins Game 32, he will tie with James Holzhauer for regular games won. Let’s see if one of these players can put the kibosh on that: Katrina Puckett, a teacher from Washington Court House, OH; and Greg Shahade, a chess player from Philadelphia, PA.
Round 1 Categories: Entertaining Demises – Women of Science – A Perfect 10 – Squealers – Where There’s A “Ville” – Fashion Magazines
Greg found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Squealers” under the $1,000 clue on the 13th pick. He was in second place with $2,200, $800 less than Jamie’s lead. Greg bet $2,200 and he was RIGHT.
You don’t want to be called this, the last name of John Turturro’s title character in a Coen brothers flick show
Greg finished in the lead with $5,600. Jamie was in second place with $4,400. Katrina was last with $2,200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Historic Alliances – The Shape of Things – New Meaning – Flowers on the Wall – Plays & Playwrights – Craft-Y Celebrities
Greg got the first Daily Double in “Plays & Playwrights” under the $1,600 clue on the 2nd pick of the round. In the lead with $7,600, he had $3,200 more than Jamie in second place. Greg bet it all and he was RIGHT.
The title object of this Oscar Wilde play is both a fashionable accessory & a mark of femininity show
On the next pick, Greg got the last Daily Double in “Historic Alliances” under the $1,600 clue. In the lead with $15,200 now, he had $10,800 more than Jamie in second place. Greg bet $7,000 and he was RIGHT.
This 55-nation group launched in 2002 has its headquarters in Addis Ababa show
Greg finished in the lead with a runaway $32,600. Jamie was in second place with $16,000. Katrina was last with $3,000. All clues were shown.
ALL of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT ARE AFRIKAANS & ZULU?
Up until July 18, 2023, South Africa had 11 official languages. From A to Z, they are: Afrikaans, English, Sepedi, South African Sign Language, Ndebele (South), Sotho (South), Swazi (aka Swati), Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu. The video below shows the distribution of the 11 languages across South Africa. On July 19, 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa made South African Sign Language the country’s 12th official language. Educators are working on making the official sign language uniform across the country.
According to this chart, South Africa is the only African nation where Afrikaans, Ndebele, Sepedi, Xhosa and Zulu are official languages. They aren’t listing the sign languages though other countries have their own official versions, like Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Katrina bet $1,990 and finished with $4,990.
Jamie bet $3,010 and finished with $19,010.
Greg bet $400 and won the game with $33,000 even, and so ends the long reign of Jamie Ding. From the looks of things, Greg Shadhade may be going on a long streak of his own.
A triple stumper from each round:
ENTERTAINING DEMISES ($1000) Steven Weber: “I like to think I had one of the more memorable cinematic deaths of the ’90s when Jennifer Jason Leigh ended things for me with a high heel in this psychological thriller
FLOWERS ON THE WALL ($800) A master of floral canvasses, Paul de Longpré had a home that was an early tourist site in this L.A. area with a plant in its name
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “NICKNAMES”
Surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku has been called by this 2-word nickname that describes any dominant person or expert show
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I got that Jennifer Jason Leigh / Bridget Fonda ’90s movie. I tried to get Nikki to watch it with me once but she bailed in the middle of it.
When Jamie said TTFN, it means his favorite Winnie the Pooh character is Tigger. Because that’s Tigger’s catchphrase.
Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, what color is Tigger?
For the first time in 6 weeks, we finally have a new champion in Greg Shahade. He was able to do what more than 60 people were unable to do and that is unseat Jamie Ding. Congratulations to him. That means we have to say goodbye to Jamie Ding, what an outstanding run for him. His Jeopardy era comes to an end today. The question is how long will Greg’s run as champion last for? We’ll have to find out what happens starting tomorrow.