A Whole New World 10 Obscure Languages from Around the Globe

A Whole New World 10 Obscure Languages from Around the Globe A Whole New World: 10 Obscure Languages from Around the Globe Europe has  close to  100. The United States, over 300. Africa, nearly 2000.Were talking about spoken languages.From the indigenous to the transposed, the spoken wordâ€"or spoken sound, well get to that later onâ€"is vast. Its fluid. Languages take on a life of their own. Theyre born, they change and sometimes they die.People move all over the world for new experiences and opportunities. Yet, despite this yearning for the something different,  people tend to hold their native tongue close to the  heart. Why? Its simple. Our native language represents a large part of our cultural, national and personal identities.Its only natural that we want to preserve it  for the next generation and generations to come. Just think, its believed that New York City, a major diversity hub, is home to over 800 languages. Thats nearly twice the amount of the entire United States. Not everyone has heard of many  of these languages, but it goes to show the power of preservation. No matter where we are in the world, we want to keep our language alive.Unfortunately, thats not always possible.Despite the worlds rich linguistic panoply, there are hundreds of languages that  are  endangered and extinct, in large part due to globalizationâ€"which, while okay  in many other instances, doesnt do any favors for endangered languagesâ€"but also war, genocide and the imposition of national languages. Assimilation is another big contributor. Sometimes the desire to simply fit in causes people to forgo their native language and  adopt the one thats more commonly spoken in their region of the world.Theres actually one tiny concession that globalization  makes for  the world of linguistics. It opens the door to opportunity. As the world gets smaller and smaller, our individual worlds actually get bigger. Were now able to seek out information and answers and make discoveries. Who  knows how many languages the world has lost over the course of human existence? At least now,  we have the opportunity t o try to preserve those that are on their way out. Of course,  many will still be lost,  but now we have the ability to identify them, acknowledge that they once existed and possibly  learn new things in the process.The obscure, the unknown and the untouched all amount to excitement, possibility, creativity  and beyond. Lets expand our minds. Lets take a peek into the hidden corners of our planet. You never know what you might find. A Whole New World: 10 Obscure Languages from Around the GlobeXhosaRegion: South Africa Approximate Number of Native Speakers:  8  millionOf its 11 official languages, Xhosa, part of the Bantu family,  is one of the  most commonly spoken in South Africa. It was also the native language of Nelson Mandela! With 8 million speakers, it may seem like Xhosa is thriving, and technically speaking, it is. However, in a linguistic sense, 8 million is a small number. To put it into perspective, Mandarin has over 900 millionâ€"thats almost one billionâ€"native spea kers. So by comparison, 8  million is blip on the language radar.The language itself is uniquely characterized by clicks and tonal variations  to differentiate the meaning of words. A single word could have several meanings just based on tone. The clicks, however, are by far the most interesting part of this language. Theyre represented by the letters c, x and q. There are three different kinds of clicks: dental for c  (tut-tut sound), alveolar for q  (cork popping sound) and lateral  for x  (teeth sucking sound). And to make things harder, each of these clicks have several variations.Here, try to say ugqirha (doctor) using the appropriate click. Or try even saying  Xhosa  properly.  Not so easy is it? Many non-native speakers find this language quite difficult to master so dont feel bad.In any case, if you want to hear a sample of the fascinating sounds of Xhosa, click here.BelarusianRegion: Belarus Approximate Number of Native Speakers: 3 millionThis is an Eastern Slavic language with a close relation to Russian and Ukrainian.  To some extent the languages are mutually intelligible. Still in the millions, theres a fair amount of speakers in the world. However, 3 million is less than half of the population of London, so the language is really spoken on quite a small scale.Russian colonization is the main cause. Many Belarusians speak fluent Russian, although the reverse isnt true.  In fact, Russian is so common in Belarus that an overwhelming majority of Belarusians  choose to speak Russian  in their day-to-day lives as opposed to Belarusian.The language itself has  got 6  vowels, up to 48 consonants and up to 54 phonemes (English has 44). Its written in the Cyrillic alphabet (also used by other Slavic languages such as Russian and Serbian), but its 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 of some political unrest, Cyrillic became the only alphabet used for official writing.Despite its turbulent past, Belarusian still perseveres. In recent years,  there has been an increase in public support to make the language a larger part of the cultural identity. Lets hope that support continues to grow.In the meantime, please enjoy this Belarusian rap.Silbo GomeroRegion: La Gomera, Canary Islands Approximate Number of Native Speakers: 22,000Who needs consonants, nouns, verbs and letters? The people of La Gomera  Island certainly dont. On this lovely island off the coast of Spain, the inhabitants have transformed the Spanish language so that it can be communicated through whistles. Thats right, this is a whistle language.The people of this tiny patch of land speak Spanishâ€"Canarian Spanish, that isâ€"but they take great pride in Silbo Gomero.  Once on the  verge of extinction, there  was a revival in the late 90s, and teaching it in schools on the island has b een required since 1999. It was even added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2009.The language is communicated over large valleys and ravines  in this  mountainous region.  This is because words get jumbled and distorted over long distances. Just recall a time when someone has tried to shout to you from far away. Our first response is typically Huh?! or What?! and the other person has to repeat themselves several times for the message to come across. Whistling, however, can transmit with perfect clarity for up to three miles (five kilometers).Silbo Gomero replaces the five vowels in Spanish with two tones where i is the highest pitch and o 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 s ounds are as distinct as the letters and words  on this page.Want to get a sense of how it works? Click the link above, and then check out this fun little video.RotokasRegion: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea Approximate Number of Native Speakers: 4,000This is considered to be one of the simplest of the known languages, trailing only behind Pirahã (see below). The language has a mere 12 letters and 11 phonemes (t and s are the same sound). Vowels have a long and short counterpart, but there are no real tonal distinctions in their speech. It has three dialects which are: Central Rotokas, Aita Rotokas and Pipipaia.One unique bit about this language is that it doesnt use nasal tones. Actually, it  does, but only when  speakers are  making fun of foreigners who attempt to speak Rotokas. How about that? If youre unsure of when we use nasal tones in our own speech, refer to the letter n. Its very nasal. Its probably most apparent when you have a cold, but say n  right now and hold it. You should feel a vibration right in the bridge of your nose.  This particular form of speech is so second nature to us that we dont even notice it, and apparently, we incorporate it into a language that doesnt  even use it.Now,  just  for fun,  try saying n  without the nasal component. I suggest you go in a room and close the door, because it gets really weird really fast.When youre done with that, heres taste of some real life Rotokas.MichifRegion: United States and Canada Approximate Number of Native Speakers: less than 1000Heres where the numbers start to reach a critical low. This is classified as an impossible language.Michif 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. Its a combination of Cree, an Algonquian language, and French, and its believed to have been created out of a desire for a cultural identity. Although Michif is a product of both Cree and French, most Mi chif speakers arent fluent in either language.Conceptually, Michif is quite simple. It combines French nouns and Cree verbs. Linguistic scholars tear their hair out over this.  According to these scholars, its impossible that these two very different  languages, one being a Romance language, and the other being a polysynthetic language could possibly work together. Sure, opposites attract, but this goes beyond an odd couple scenario. Cree is to French as apples are tofax machines. The language  breaks all the  laws of linguistics and doesnt fall into any  real classification.  There are even  linguists who wont  acknowledge that the language exists.But it does.Lets take a look at the phrase those men. In French you say ces hommes-là. In Cree you say neekik nâpêwak. In Michif, a combination of the two,  you  say neekik lii zom. While it may look like gibberish, the last two words (lii zom) when said out loud should be  quite recognizable to even a novice French speaker.  So really , it does work, and its quite cool and interesting. If you speak French (and even if you dont), give it a shot, say it out loud.Also, to the linguistic scholars out there who still dont believe: Rules were meant to be broken, and we conquer the impossible every day. Try to not trouble yourself too much over this. Humans are  just badass. What can we say? Its the world we live in, and its pretty awesome.Anyway, how about it Francophiles? Can you pick out any familiar words?ArchiRegion: Archib, RussiaApproximate Number of Native Speakers: 970This is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken throughout seven small villages of Archib  in 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.The Archi language certainly likes to keep things interesting. The  alphabet consists of 26 vowel  phonemes and a  modest 74 to 82 consonants. Also, rather than two noun cla sses like in many of the languages that were familiar with, masculine and feminine, Archi has four. It has  150 phonemes, and if you think thats a lot, its believed that a single verb can have over 1.5 million forms. Somehow that stereotype that English is one of the hardest languages to learn seems to be quickly falling by the wayside.  Archi will leave you sprinting to the nearest Mandarin course for a taste of something simpler.Heres what this endangered language sounds like.KoroRegion: Northeast India Approximate Number of Native Speakers: 800Koro 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. Koro, however, appears to be unto a world of its own, as its only  very distantly related to its linguistic contemporaries. Researchers have found that Koro is as distinct from its neighboring l anguages as Greek is from Vietnamese.The main difference between Koro and its related languages is that its comprised of different sounds. For example, in the neighboring language Aka, the word for pig is vo, and in Koro its lele. Researchers believe that the  language may have  come from a group of people who were enslaved in the region. For these people, Koro isnt just communication, but its strongly linked to the valley in which this small village is situated. It encompasses  everything known about the region and the secrets of their own survival. If this language were to become extinct, the world wouldnt just be losing a language, but a race of people would be losing a major part of their heritage.You can get a sample of what researchers discovered about Koro in this video from National Geographic.PirahãRegion: Amazon Rainforest, Brazil Approximate Number of Native Speakers: 380Were now  deep in the Amazon.Pirahã is the only surviving dialect of the Mura languages. Although it has so few speakers, theres actually no immediate threat to its extinction. The Pirahã community is largely monolingual, so theres no concern that the language will be phased out like many of the others in the region that were replaced by Portuguese. The Pirahã have had limited interaction with the outside world except for the extensive research by Dr. Daniel Everett.With only 10-12  phonemes, which consists of 7 consonants and 3 vowels, its considered the simplest language in the world. For the women in the community, its even simpler. They use one less consonant than the men. Whats most interesting about this language is that  its largely conceptual.  There are no fixed words for numbers and colors.  The words  hói and hoí,  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.The Pirahã language  focuses on the pre sent. As a culture, the people dont concern themselves with the past. If they dont see something, then it doesnt exist. For example, if a bird  was on a tree and then flew away to another tree, the Pirahã would say that the bird is  xibipio (gone out of existence). Although the language is technically simple, the culture and psychology are  so deeply connected that it takes something like the extensive research of Dr. Everett to really get a grasp of this unique language and culture.Heres a little piece of it.AyapanecoRegion: Tabasco, Mexico Approximate Number of Native Speakers: 2This centuries-old language is nearly extinct. It was once a minority language spoken  regularly throughout the region, but  began  to die out on account of  the  passage of  time, modernization, and the widespread use of Spanish.  Ayapaneco survived wars and natural disasters and now its down to its last legs. There are only two people who actually speak it.Whats interesting is that for many years, the l ast two speakers, Manuel Segovia and Isidro Velazquez, would not speak to each other. Whether there was a falling out or it was just due to the limitations of old age, no one is really sure.  However,  for quite some time,  with 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 theres a strong movement in the region to keep the language alive.Well be rooting for your survival, Ayapaneco. For now, you can watch how the pros do it.SentineleseRegion: North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal Approximate Number of Native Speakers: UnknownTheres one thing that makes Sentinelese stand out from all of the other languages on this list. No one has ever heard it.That is, no one apart from the native speakers themselves.The small North Sentinel Island, just a touch larger than the island of Manhattan, ho uses an isolated tribe of people  who arent too keen on foreign relations. Basically, if you get too close theyll shoot an  arrow through you. Anthropologist Trilokinath Pandit is the only person to have made contact with the Sentinelese without having been severely wounded or killed.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 isnt reliable. Since  no one has been able to study them extensively, these sounds could have been misinterpreted as greetings. Its thought that the language may have some similarities to the surrounding Andamanese tribes, but no one can be sure. All we know is that this is an unyielding  bunchâ€"they managed to survive the 2004 tsunamiâ€"who dont want anything to do with outsiders.If youre really keen on hearing what are sure to be the mellifluous musings of the Sentinelese people,  maybe you can make history. Wed love s ome more data for this post.  Youll  have to try, with an emphasis on try,  to  sneak onto the island by way or raft or canoe. Theyve been known to shoot at helicopters, planes and boats. If you manage to make it onto the island unscathed, you wont have to go searching. Theyll find you. See if theyd be  up for a chat.  Let us know what comes of it. Good luck.Dont go anywhere just yet. Theres one more language, albeit an unconventional one, that deserves a spot on this list of the  obscure.*Bonus: KlingonRegion of the World: Anywhere that there are hardcore Star Trek fans Approximate Number of Fluent Speakers: 30Now, let us boldly go where no man has gone before. Okay, well, maybe some have gone there, but Klingon doesnt typically end up on these kinds of lists. That may be because of the small issue that it isnt technically a real language. Klingon was created for the Star Trek series, spoken by the aliens from  the planet Kronos. It was  turned into a full on language by linguist M ark Okrand.With only 3,000 words, its difficult to have any meaningful conversations in Klingon, especially since many of the words are centered on things like intergalactic wars, spacecrafts and other such things we generally dont discuss most days of the week. Speakers have to be very creative when trying to express themselves. For example, something as simple as how are you? becomes bIpIva (are you healthy?), and cheers becomes  IwlIj jachjaj (may your blood scream). Apparently, there are about 30 people in the world who dont mind the trouble. There was even a man who tried to  raise his son  on the language.Though Star Trek is clamoring to remain relevant as Marvel dominates the nerdiverseâ€"not to mention the Star Wars sagaâ€"Klingon is perhaps  in less danger of extinction than Xhosa despite being short 7,999,970 fluent speakers. There are thousands who can just get by in Klingon and even more who know a word or two  here and there. Trekkies of the world are both faithful and vigilant. As long as Star Trek conventions continue to grace major cities,  Klingon is sure to continue touching  fans of generations past, present and future. And the  Klingon Language Institute  will see to it.  So will Duolingo. Yup, you read that correctly. The popular language learning  website plans to launch a beta  Klingon course this coming December.We know youre all holding your breath in anticipation.While you anxiously await the big day, here are some words of  wisdom from Americas favorite genius.Our journey around the globe has come to an end. Hopefully, it has inspired you to learn something different and new. Maybe you can even challenge yourself to actually learn one of these tough languages, at least the ones that are accessible.Youll certainly be the center of  happy hour  if you suddenly drop some fluent Rotokas on  your colleagues; just be sure to apply the unapologetic wisdom of comedian Kevin Hart, and  say it with your chest.Live long and prosper, friends. And One More ThingIf you  love learning languages, youve got to  check out FluentU. FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that natives  speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse Screen.FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.Interactive transcript for Carlos Baute song.You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs learn mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary t hat you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet  or, better yet,  download the FluentU app from  the iTunes store  or Google Play store.