Welcome to the January 2026 edition of #fridaygeotrivia, our social media geotrivia contest.
As per tradition we will play on the final Friday of the month: Friday, 30th of January, 2026, at 17:00 Berlin time, 4pm London time, 11AM New York time.
See how to play below.
The January 2026 geotrivia question:
Name countries that
-
Have land borders with other countries
-
Have as main/official language a language that IS main/official in other countries, but not in bordering countries.
For example: Portugal speak Portuguese, which is spoken in many other countries, but not in any country that borders Portugal
As a negative example, the UK speaks English, but so does Ireland which it borders.
As always:
-
Only one answer per toot
-
You must include the hashtag #fridaygeotrivia and the emoji flag of the countries
Prizes
#fridaygeotrivia is a game with two prizes:
-
the sheer joy of geographic knowledge and pedantry.
-
the bragging rights of getting the answer first.
The #fridaygeotrivia Mastodon thread:
The winner
The winner was @antonia@estrogen.network
This month’s geotrivia answer:
How to play
Anyone can join in, you just need a Mastodon account.
-
Follow us on Mastodon, our account is @opencage@en.osm.town
-
When the game starts we will post the question here on the blog and on Mastodon, and will embed the Mastodon question here. We highly recommend using a mastodon client you feel comfortable with. We’ve made the switch to the Elk client and are loving it, but use whatever works for you.
-
Reply to the question thread on Mastodon (it will be embedded above) using the hashtag #fridaygeotrivia in your answer.
-
Only one answer per response (don’t stuff multiple answers into a single reply).
-
Our definition of “country” is usually (it depends on the question) any place with an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code. Read more background about ISO and country codes in our guide.
-
To get full points for an answer it is good form not just to name the relevant country but (if possible) to include the emoji flags of the country.
-
While you can use a map, please do NOT use the internet to just search for an answer. That is cheating and will lead to seriously bad geokarma.
Some people have complained that the format is a bit chaotic and hard to follow. Yes. The mad chaos is part of the fun. Embrace it. The goal is just to have fun and learn. We win by playing
Thanks for playing,