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Inspired by this, but different.

A woman is told to make a circle

She makes...

enter image description here

...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

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  • $\begingroup$ 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. $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 15:04
  • $\begingroup$ @Bass thanks for the reminder, it slipped my mind... $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 15:21
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    $\begingroup$ To be super pedantic, does she just make "bread", or does she make two loaves that look just like those two? $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 16:14
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    $\begingroup$ @GrimmTheOpiner It's just an illustration - any generic bread would do. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 13, 2018 at 13:21
  • $\begingroup$ Has a correct answer been given? If so, please don't forget to $\color{green}{\checkmark \small\text{Accept}}$ it :) $\endgroup$
    – Rubio
    Commented Feb 14, 2018 at 7:17

4 Answers 4

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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 :))

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  • $\begingroup$ 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. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 14, 2018 at 7:33
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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.

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  • $\begingroup$ Very good thinking, this is not among those multiple possible answers I had in mind $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 13, 2018 at 13:26
  • $\begingroup$ 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]. $\endgroup$
    – as4s4hetic
    Commented Feb 14, 2018 at 1:34
  • $\begingroup$ In fact it's [ŋ!ʱ]* sorry $\endgroup$
    – as4s4hetic
    Commented Feb 14, 2018 at 1:59
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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.

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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)

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  • $\begingroup$ How did she make the bread if she's in a hospital? $\endgroup$
    – rhsquared
    Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 14:26
  • $\begingroup$ maybe she works as a cook in the hospital $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 14:30
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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to SE Puzzling! Would you elaborate more on your answer? $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 14:43
  • $\begingroup$ I don't really see how I could elaborate more $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 15:21
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    $\begingroup$ I don't understand your answer. What is a "pain circle"? Does that phrase mean something specific in English or French or both? $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 16:17

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