But some languages are just special and unique, or should we say obscure?<\/p>\n
So if you’re asking yourself, “what language should I learn<\/a>?” choosing an obscure language may just be your answer.<\/p>\n Come with us to explore ten of the Earth’s most obscure languages.<\/p>\n [fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are many factors that can contribute to a language being classified as obscure, but in general, an obscure language refers to a language that is not widely spoken or known compared to more widely used languages (like English, Chinese or Spanish).<\/p>\n Some of the factors that contribute to classifying a language as obscure are the number of speakers. Languages with a small number of speakers are more likely to be considered obscure.<\/p>\n A second consideration is the geographical distribution of the language.\u00a0Languages that are spoken in isolated or less-populated regions may be less well-known on a global scale.<\/p>\n Other considerations are the language’s recognition and official status and if a language has a written form.<\/p>\n Also if a language doesn’t have a media presence (newspapers, TV shows, books, etc.), it will be more obscure.<\/p>\n Last, languages that are written in an unfamiliar script or alphabet may be more obscure because so few people can read them.<\/p>\n Region:<\/strong> South Africa Xhosa, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages and Nelson Mandela’s native tongue, boasts 8 million speakers. While this may seem substantial, it pales in comparison to Mandarin’s 900 million. The language’s uniqueness lies in clicks and tonal nuances that alter word meanings.<\/p>\n A single word’s tone can convey various meanings. Clicks, represented by c, x, and q, are especially intriguing. They encompass dental (tut-tut), alveolar (cork pop), and lateral (teeth suck) sounds. Each click type has multiple variations.<\/p>\n Pronouncing words like “ugqirha” (doctor) or “Xhosa” accurately can be challenging, even for non-native speakers. Don’t be discouraged\u2014it’s a complex language to master!<\/p>\n Region: <\/strong>Belarus This is an Eastern Slavic language has shrunk a lot through the years and\u00a0Russian colonization is the main cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n The language itself has got 6 vowels, up to 48 consonants and up to 54 phonemes (English has 44). It’s written in the Cyrillic alphabet, but it’s also been written with Latin, Arabic and Hebrew script. There are also two main dialects which can be found in the northeast and the southwest. Until the early 1900s, there was really no standardized grammar. Then, finally, amidst some political unrest, Cyrillic became the only alphabet used for official writing.<\/p>\n Despite its turbulent past, Belarusian still perseveres. In recent years,\u00a0there has been an increase in public support to make the language a larger part of the cultural identity. Let’s hope that support continues to grow.<\/p>\n In the meantime, please enjoy this Belarusian rap<\/a>.<\/p>\n Region:<\/strong> La Gomera, Canary Islands Who needs consonants, nouns, verbs and letters? The people of La Gomera\u00a0Island certainly don’t. On this lovely island off the coast of Spain, the inhabitants have transformed the Spanish language so that it can be communicated through whistles. That’s right, this is a whistle language.<\/p>\n The people of this tiny patch of land speak Spanish\u2014Canarian Spanish<\/a>, that is\u2014but they take great pride in Silbo Gomero.\u00a0Once on the\u00a0verge of extinction, there\u00a0was a revival in the late 90s, and teaching it in schools on the island has been required since 1999. It was even added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009.<\/p>\n The language is communicated over large valleys and ravines<\/a> in this mountainous region. This is because words get jumbled and distorted over long distances. Whistling, however, can transmit with perfect clarity for up to three miles (five kilometers).<\/p>\n Silbo Gomero replaces the five vowels in Spanish with two tones where i<\/em> is the highest pitch and o<\/em> is the lowest pitch, and the other vowels fall in the middle. The consonants, however, are represented by dropping from high to low pitch, low to high pitch, breaks, steadiness and volume. For the untrained ear, all of this just sounds like a lovely melody, but for the people in La Gomera the sounds are as distinct as the letters and words\u00a0on this page.<\/p>\n Region:<\/strong> Bougainville, Papua New Guinea Rotokas is a language spoken by the Rotokas people in the Bougainville region of Papua New Guinea. It is known for its extreme phonological simplicity, having one of the smallest phonemic inventories in the world. Rotokas consists of only 12 phonemes, making it remarkable for its economy of sounds.<\/p>\n The language gained attention from linguists due to its limited phonetic diversity, with just six consonants and six vowels. Despite this, Rotokas is rich in its grammatical structures and expressive capabilities.<\/p>\n Rotokas is primarily a spoken language, as it was traditionally not a written one. However, efforts have been made to develop writing systems for Rotokas in recent years to support education and communication. The language holds cultural significance for the Rotokas people and is an integral part of their heritage.<\/p>\n Here’s taste of some real life Rotokas:<\/p>\n Region:<\/strong> United States and Canada Here’s where the numbers start to reach a critical low. This is classified as an impossible language.<\/p>\n Michif<\/a> is the language of the Metis people who are descendants of European fur traders, and located in certain regions of Canada and small pockets of North Dakota. It’s a combination of Cree, an Algonquian language, and French, and it’s believed to have been created out of a desire for a cultural identity. Although Michif is a product of both Cree and French, most Michif speakers aren’t fluent in either language.<\/p>\n Conceptually, Michif is quite simple. It combines French nouns and Cree verbs. Linguistic scholars tear their hair out over this.<\/p>\n According to these scholars, it’s impossible that these two very different languages, one being a Romance language, and the other being a polysynthetic language could possibly work together. The language breaks all the laws of linguistics and doesn’t fall into any real classification. There are even linguists who won’t acknowledge that the language exists.<\/p>\n But it does.<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at the phrase “those men.” In French you say ces hommes-l\u00e0<\/em>. In Cree you say neekik n\u00e2p\u00eawak.<\/em> In Michif, a combination of the two,\u00a0you\u00a0say neekik lii zom.<\/em> While it may look like gibberish, the last two words (lii zom)<\/em> when said out loud should be quite recognizable to even a novice French speaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, how about it, Francophiles? Can you pick out any familiar words in this Michif conversation:<\/p>\n This is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken throughout seven small villages of Archib\u00a0in Dagestan, Russia. This is one of the most complex languages on the list. Until recently, there was no written form of Archi, but once again Cyrillic characters have come to save the day.<\/p>\n The Archi language certainly likes to keep things interesting. The\u00a0alphabet consists of 26 vowel\u00a0phonemes and a\u00a0modest 74 to 82 consonants. Also, rather than two noun classes like in many of the languages that we’re familiar with, masculine and feminine, Archi has four. It has\u00a0150 phonemes, and if you think that’s a lot, it’s believed that a single verb can have over 1.5 million forms<\/a>. Somehow that stereotype that English is one of the hardest languages to learn<\/a> seems to be quickly falling by the wayside.\u00a0Archi will leave you sprinting to the nearest Mandarin course for a taste of something simpler.<\/p>\n Here’s what this endangered language sounds like:<\/p>\n Region:<\/strong> Northeast India Koro was “discovered” by linguists in recent years during the mid-2000s. It brought the number of known global languages to 6,909. Koro is in the Tibeto-Burman language family, which consists of 400 other languages, 150 of which are spoken in India. Researchers have found that Koro is as distinct from its neighboring languages as Greek is from Vietnamese.<\/p>\n The main difference between Koro and its related languages is that it’s composed of different sounds. For example, in the neighboring language Aka, the word for “pig” is vo, <\/em>and in Koro it’s lele.<\/em><\/p>\n Researchers believe that the\u00a0language may have\u00a0come from a group of people who were enslaved in the region. For these people, Koro isn’t just communication, but it’s strongly linked to the valley in which this small village is situated. It encompasses\u00a0everything known about the region and the secrets of their own survival. If this language were to become extinct, the world wouldn’t just be losing a language, but a race of people would be losing a major part of their heritage.<\/p>\n You can get a sample of what researchers discovered about Koro in this video from National Geographic:<\/p>\n Region:<\/strong> Amazon Rainforest, Brazil Pirah\u00e3 is the only surviving dialect of the Mura languages. Although it has so few speakers, there’s actually no immediate threat to its extinction. The Pirah\u00e3 community is largely monolingual, so there’s no concern that the language will be phased out like many of the others in the region that were replaced by Portuguese. The Pirah\u00e3 have had limited interaction with the outside world except for the extensive research by Dr. Daniel Everett<\/a>.<\/p>\n With only 10-12\u00a0phonemes, which consists of 7 consonants and 3 vowels, it’s considered the simplest language in the world.<\/p>\n For the women in the community, it’s even simpler. They use one less consonant than the men.<\/p>\n What’s most interesting about this language is that\u00a0it’s largely conceptual.\u00a0There are no fixed words for numbers and colors.\u00a0The words\u00a0h\u00f3i<\/em> and ho\u00ed<\/em>, when said in different tones, roughly mean “small quantity” and “large quantity.” With no fixed terms for colors, rather than saying that something is “green,” they may say something along the lines of “It looks like grass.”<\/p>\n The Pirah\u00e3 language\u00a0focuses on the present. As a culture, the people don’t concern themselves with the past. If they don’t see something, then it doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n For example, if a bird\u00a0was on a tree and then flew away to another tree, the Pirah\u00e3 would say that the bird is\u00a0xibipio<\/em> (gone out of existence). Although the language is technically “simple,” the culture and psychology are\u00a0so deeply connected that it takes something like the extensive research of Dr. Everett to really get a grasp of this unique language and culture.<\/p>\n Here’s a taste:<\/p>\n Region:<\/strong> Tabasco, Mexico This centuries-old language is nearly extinct. It was once a minority language spoken\u00a0regularly throughout the region, but\u00a0began\u00a0to die out on account of\u00a0the\u00a0passage of\u00a0time, modernization, and the widespread use of Spanish.\u00a0Ayapaneco survived wars and natural disasters and now it’s down to its last legs. There are only two people who actually speak it.<\/p>\n What’s interesting is that for many years, the last two speakers, Manuel Segovia and Isidro Velazquez, would not speak to each other<\/a>. Whether there was a falling out or it was just due to the limitations of old age, no one is really sure.\u00a0However,\u00a0for quite some time,\u00a0with the two men refusing to speak Ayapaneco, it was like the language had actually died. Luckily, within the last two years, Manuel and Isidro called for a revival and decided that they would teach the language to anyone who wanted to learn. Now there’s a strong movement in the region to keep the language alive.<\/p>\n We’ll be rooting for your survival, Ayapaneco. For now, here’s how the language sounds:<\/p>\n Region:<\/strong> North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal There’s one thing that makes Sentinelese stand out from all of the other languages on this list. No one has ever heard it. It’s “forbidden.”<\/p>\n That is, no one apart from the native speakers themselves.<\/p>\n The small North Sentinel Island, just a touch larger than the island of Manhattan, houses an isolated tribe of people<\/a>\u00a0who aren’t too keen on foreign relations. Basically, if you get too close they’ll shoot an\u00a0arrow through you. Anthropologist Trilokinath Pandit is the only person to have made contact with the Sentinelese without having been severely wounded or killed.<\/p>\n The only information on this language, obtained from very scant observations, is that the Sentinelese greet each other in a two-toned system; but even this little bit of intelligence isn’t reliable. Since no one has been able to study them extensively, these sounds could have been misinterpreted as greetings. It’s thought that the language may have some similarities to the surrounding Andamanese tribes, but no one can be sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you’re really keen on hearing what are sure to be the mellifluous musings of the Sentinelese people, maybe you can make history. We’d love some more data for this post. If you manage to make it onto the island unscathed, you won’t have to go searching. They’ll find you. See if they’d be up for a chat. Let us know what comes of it.<\/p>\n This didn’t stop this polyglot from trying to learn this forbidden language:<\/p>\n If you don’t necessarily want to learn to speak these obscure languages yourself and want to try something more common, you can do that with a language learning program such as FluentU<\/a>. FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\nWhat Are Obscure Languages?<\/h2>\n
The Amazing Obscure Languages of Planet Earth<\/h2>\n
Xhosa<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong>\u00a08\u00a0million
\nWhy Learn This Language:\u00a0<\/strong>Traveling in rural South Africa and because it’s fascinating
\nSimilar to:\u00a0<\/strong>Zulu<\/p>\nBelarusian<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> 3 million
\nWhy Learn This Language: <\/strong>To impress locals in Belarus
\nSimilar to:\u00a0<\/strong>Russian, Ukrainian<\/p>\nSilbo Gomero<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> 22,000
\nWhy Learn This Language:\u00a0<\/strong>So you can communicate over long distances
\nSimilar to:\u00a0<\/strong>None, but it’s based on Spanish<\/p>\nRotokas<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> 4,000
\nWhy Learn This Language:\u00a0<\/strong>With only 12 sounds, it’s relatively easy to learn
\nSimilar to: <\/strong>Eivo, Tinputz<\/p>\nMichif<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> less than 1000
\nWhy Learn This Language:\u00a0<\/strong>To impress the Metis people of Canada and North Dakota
\nSimilar to:\u00a0<\/strong>Haitian Creole<\/p>\nArchi<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> 970
\nWhy Learn This Language: <\/strong><\/strong>To master one of Earth’s most complex languages<\/div>\nKoro<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> 800
\nWhy Learn This Language:\u00a0<\/strong>To impress Koro locals and linguists
\nSimilar to: <\/strong>Aka, Miji<\/p>\nPirah\u00e3<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> 380
\nWhy Learn This Language: <\/strong>To communicate with locals in the Amazon and to impress linguists
\nSimilar to:\u00a0<\/strong>None<\/p>\nAyapaneco<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> 2
\nWhy Learn This Language:\u00a0<\/strong>To mediate an argument between the last two speakers
\nSimilar to: <\/strong>Mixe-Zoque languages<\/p>\nSentinelese<\/h2>\n
\nApproximate Number of Native Speakers:<\/strong> Unknown
\nWhy Learn This Language:\u00a0<\/strong>To save your own life if you reach North Sentinel Island
\nSimilar to: <\/strong>Unknown<\/p>\n
![\"FluentU](\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/try-fluentu-for-free.jpg\")
\r\n