Do you speak a rare language?

[babyleans]

Hello guys, when talking about languages most people are only concerned with the more popular languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin etc. But i wanted to know if any of you speak a rare or unpopular local language. What is your local language that we may not know? My local language is called kikuyu and is only spoken in my country by a specific tribe.

[alanoww]

Hmmm I'm not sure whether or not this language would be classified as "popular" or "unpopular", but I have been exposed to Cantonese as a second language from my parents. At one point, Cantonese was popularized in movies and the economic success of Hong Kong in the 80's and 90's. As of late though, it is losing popularity and I fear it soon to be a rare language.

So perhaps it is language that is "losing popularity", but not quite "rare" just yet.

[Archangelos]

Is greek considered to be a rare language?

[Rosa]

Jamaican Creole is one of the languages I speak. It is quite unique and hearer always show an interest in it and want to learn it too. It is a mixture of several languages and I think it's very easy to learn.

[Trellum]

Uhm, I guess Norwegian is kinda rare, lol. I speak some, and understand a lot of it. I guess you could say Norwegian is kinda rare, since officially speaking this language is spoken only in Norway.  Needless to say I love the language and the culture, when I think of Norway I have the fondest memories ever, I get the same when I hear the language  :love:

[SpringBreeze]

No, I don't speak a rare language. But I did try to study Sumerian a few years ago. It's an ancient dead language from the land of Sumer. I also have been exposed to Creole by friends. I've even picked up a few words. Creole is a language spoken in Haiti. It used to be a slang language but now it's been converted to one of the official languages of Haiti.

[Kektheman]

My mother tongue is Slovene, spoken by about 2 million people. Is that rare enough?

Did you know that there are more students studying Slovene in Poland than there are in Slovenia?

[Livvypoo]

No, I don't speak a rare language. But I did try to study Sumerian a few years ago. It's an ancient dead language from the land of Sumer. I also have been exposed to Creole by friends. I've even picked up a few words. Creole is a language spoken in Haiti. It used to be a slang language but now it's been converted to one of the official languages of Haiti.

I thought that Sumerian was so old, that it was impossible to actually speak it, since it's been so long since anyone who spoke it was alive, so we can only read it, and even then only sort of, no?

[sidney]

I would like to think so, because I speak Tagalog, and only people from the Philippines speak that kind of language. I think if only 1 country or residents only of a certain province/place in a country speak a certain dialect,then it is already considered rare in my book.

[Rosa]

I would like to think so, because I speak Tagalog, and only people from the Philippines speak that kind of language. I think if only 1 country or residents only of a certain province/place in a country speak a certain dialect,then it is already considered rare in my book.

I agree with you Sidney and that's why I consider Jamaican Creole to be a rare language. There is quite a few Creole around but each is uniquely different making them rare.

[Hemikune]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah

  The story of Tsalagi, the Cherokee language, and its origin is both fascinating and inspiring.

  Bear in mind, my knowledge of it is only relegated to one or two words, but with the fact that my Great-Grand Mother was Full Blood Cherokee, I felt obligated to share this rare information.

  I was most impressed by this, "Even though the Cherokee student must learn 85 characters instead of 26, he can read immediately. The student could accomplish in a few weeks what students of English writing could learn in two years.[14]"

[lei / Latifa]

Interesting. I have never even heard of the language kikuyu. I am taking sign language...do you consider that a rare language? I'd love to take a rare language but who would I get help from when needed?

[Shearah]

I speak Polish and I think that it's a rather rare language and I also speak a bit of Irish.

[SpringBreeze]

I thought that Sumerian was so old, that it was impossible to actually speak it, since it's been so long since anyone who spoke it was alive, so we can only read it, and even then only sort of, no?

Hi Livvypoo! When it comes to language, nothing is impossible. I obviously wasn't trying to communicate in it. But when I was learning it, it did help to try to speak it out loud. It kind of reminded me of when I was studying ancient Greek. Making sense of Greek letters was so difficult for me. So when I was able to pronounce just one word using the Greek alphabet, I was ecstatic. It didn't matter if I was pronouncing it the way ancient Greeks did. All that I cared about was being to figure it out the sounds. It was the same with Sumerian. Except Sumerian was much harder. So I didn't go far. It was one of my impulsive self-challenges.

Here's some more info...

"By about 2,800 BC some of the Sumerian glyphs were being used to represent sounds using the rebus principle. For example, the symbol for arrow, pronounced 'ti', was used to represent the word for life (til). There were also many glyphs which were pronounced the same but represented different words. Later a system of determinatives, which gave you a hint at the category a word belonged to, and of phonetic components, which indiciated how to pronounce a word, developed, and helped disambiguate the meanings of glyphs." http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sumerian.htm

[Determined2014]

Hello guys, when talking about languages most people are only concerned with the more popular languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin etc. But i wanted to know if any of you speak a rare or unpopular local language. What is your local language that we may not know? My local language is called kikuyu and is only spoken in my country by a specific tribe.

Yes I do my mother tongue is maragoli, which is only spoken in my country.

[Solarees]

Would you consider Ancient Greek rare or dead? I did learn how to read and write in Ancient Greek, and I'm still learning, but I'm not sure if this one is considered "rare" since there are many academics worldwide who read and write in it for academic purposes.

[Shearah]

Anybody still learning Latin? (I know that on some studies it's necessary)

[gmckee1985]

No, unfortunately I'm not fluent in anything but English at the moment but I'm working on learning a couple of different languages. Not sure what I would be interested in learning when it comes to "rare" languages. Nothing really comes to mind and that's why  I haven't done so thus far.

[Hedonologist]

I have a book on Faroese, which is a very rare language, although I have very little ability in the language itself.

[BearAcrosser]

I kind of do. I wouldn't have known I did until I started studying Linguistics though!

I'm from Southern Italy, from a town near Naples, where Neapolitan is really common. I'd say it's the first language of most people in this area. I grew up believing I was only a native speaker of Italian, and it never crossed my mind that Neapolitan could be a language.

Then I learned that it is not a non-standard way of speaking Italian, it has grammatical differences from it, completely different sounds, important literature, and most importantly it has evolved from Latin in a different way than Italian.

Neapolitan is recognized as a language, and it also has its own dialects, but of course common people here wouldn't ever believe, since it is a language without "prestige", without a nation, and with negative connotations in the eyes of the listener. So everyone thinks it's just a dialect, and that speakers are ignorant.

It is sad because it's such a beautiful language, and everyone tries to suppress it to show they're cultured. But it is the language used in most informal interactions here.

[Hedonologist]

Anybody still learning Latin? (I know that on some studies it's necessary)

I can read it somewhat, although not without a dictionary. I wouldn't consider it a rare language though because so many study it at school, it's just all but impossible to find speakers though, as opposed to writers.

[RAHSTYLES]

I think this depends on where you are at.  For example if your working for a business and most of your customers are thailand and chinese of course if you speak japanese its going to be rare.  It mostly depends on the community and where you are located.

[dostava]

Surely you must specify what you consider to be a "rare language" before you start such a thread? A maximum number of speakers would suffice... See, I speak Slovene, which has just about 2 million active users. Not too much compared to past, present and future "linguas franca", and yet, there's 2 people (myself included) who've already mentioned Slovene as the rare language they speak. Furthermore, eve with its measly 2 million users, Slovene still falls into the category of 30 most frequently used languages of the world.

So no, I don't think I speak a rare language. But if you think I do, well then good for you...

[Baburra]

I don't have any rare languages but I speak Filipino which I'm guessing is at least one of the less sought after languages to learn since it would be more practical to learn something that is more useful in a wider scale like English or Chinese. I think it is a very beautiful language though and I especially love the slang that people here come up with.

[Cookiesandcream]

I speak the Lushai language which is also known as "mizo". It's only spoken by a specific tribe from India however our ancestors migrated from mongolia. So, it sounds a bit like a mix between Mandarin and Thai. It seems like a small and rare tribe in China speaks a very similar language. I think there are only a couple thousand people who speak this language.