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Your Most Unpopular Language | ||
Tags: Rare Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5178 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 33 of 48 04 December 2012 at 2:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have downloaded a textbook for Suena - a language spoken by a small tribe in PNG, but I don't want to study it at all.
The other rare ones: Yi Zhuang Classical Script Mongolian Uyghur Kyrgyz Lepcha (language with its own writing system spoken in Sikkim state of India) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| drp9341 Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4912 days ago 115 posts - 217 votes Speaks: Italian, English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French Studies: Japanese | Message 34 of 48 05 December 2012 at 1:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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For me my most rare/unpopular language is definitely (Cuzco) Quechua.
Despite the fact that the combined number of speakers are about 10million (keeping in mind that not all dialects of Quechua are mutually intelligible.) Quechua resources are incredibly scarce. I learned some of the basic grammatical structures and vocab from the lonely planet's phrasebook, but realistically, anyone who is not a language nerd would probably not be able to make heads of tails of it from that book. Then I picked up a lot more phrases/vocab etc. etc. during my 2 month stay in the Andes. All in all, by the time I left I was able to exchange pleasantries and hold very simple conversations with very patient native speakers. Although, I will admit that I had more than a few lunches where I did manage to keep a semi-coherent conversation going using my camera, hand gestures, and my cave-man like "Quechuañol" Now if only there were more resources! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4639 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 35 of 48 05 December 2012 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If by unpopular is meant a language very few people study, then my most unpopular language is the Sursilvan dialect of Romansh/Rumantsch. Although the most widely spoken of the five recognised dialects, there are still less than 20.000 people who claim it as their native language.
Nevertheless, there are a few good resources out there for learning it, not least thanks to Lia Rumantscha, the organisation which promotes and protects the Romansh language and its dialects. Furthermore, there is actually a rich litterary tradition in Sursilvan, with the first texts appearing in the 17th century, and with something of a literary renaissance starting in the second half of the 19th century. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 36 of 48 05 December 2012 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Faroese, followed by Scottish Gaelic.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| limey75 Senior Member United Kingdom germanic.eu/ Joined 4399 days ago 119 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Norwegian, Old English | Message 37 of 48 05 December 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Faroese is now dead cool. A large Faroese grammar appeared in English a few years back. And even the famed Kauderwelsch series have a book+CD for Faroese :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ling Diglot Groupie Taiwan Joined 4586 days ago 61 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Indonesian, Thai | Message 38 of 48 05 December 2012 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Atayal. Hard to find adequate resources for it, though. Either designed for little kids,
or for hardcore linguistic scholars. But I live near a community where it's spoken. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6040 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 39 of 48 05 December 2012 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Have studied Welsh years ago and failed at it. I might try it again just so I can understand the rugby commentary on S4C :-) Would like to study Nahuatl, Ge'ez and Pali when I can get resources. I'm currently studying Sanskrit and Classical Chinese although I assume both would be fairly popular due to the prestige attached to them.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 40 of 48 05 December 2012 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah, I've skimmed through that grammar. It's by Höskuldur Thrainsson, if I remember it correctly. There are even a few language courses for Faroese. Sorry I couldn't offer a more exotic and unpopular language. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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