This would be great if you wanted to talk to yourself without anyone understanding what you’re saying, for example, or if you didn’t want anybody to know what you were writing down. It might also be useful if you enjoy lots of foreign language media (see music, tv shows, movies) and want to experience the “original” rather than through dubs and subs.
Personally, I would go for either Russian or Estonian, both of which are because I frequently listen to lots of music that are in those languages, and they aren’t spoken by any of my friends.
Chinese so I can flex being fluent in one of the most difficult languages
Hmm spanish or chinese would be most helpful statistically, but French or German would be best for understanding things i want to read + watch.
Also knowing latin or ancient greek is great for showing off… lots of buildings around here that have latin on themand it hurts me when i don’t know 100% what they say.
Russian or Estonian, both of which are because I frequently listen to lots of music t
Me too!
If you learn French, you will already be able to read and understand some bits of Spanish and can learn it without a ton of effort. A bit harder the other way around.
language that nobody speaks in your region
I realize this is a bit pedantic, but if you live in a city, there aren’t really languages that aren’t spoken in your region.
But for my choice, definitely Aztec. There’s nothing more fun to say than Aztec words. Tlachtli. Quetzalcoatl. Axolotl. Tlapalpoyactic.
(That last one is the word for the color “orange”)
If we’re talking city wide, then I doubt there are many fluent French speakers. So I’d Probably choose French just to not use it.
The trick is to learn french, then pretend not to know it if any french try to use it with you, out of spite.
Probably either Latin or Gaelic. Both just sound neat.
Dog.
Are there really no dogs in the area?
There are, but they all speak cat.
My son-in-law is learning Finnish. That’s on top of the English and German (Army brat) he already knows. As for me, I know Spanish and some German, and while Finnish would certainly qualify as a “nobody speaks” candidate, I’d go for Dutch. I’ve been to the Netherlands a couple of times, and it seems like a fun one to learn. There’s no Dutch community locally that I’m aware of.
Never too late to start. If you already know English and some German, Dutch should be even easier than it already is.
Define “nobody”, because there are over 100 languages spoken at fluent level or above by at least a few ppl where I live
If we ignore the technicalities… Polish. Spoken by a lot of people, quite difficult to learn & would be a good priority target for magically learning it, and hopefully a good gateway to the rest of the Slavic languages
India has over 600 languages endemic too it, and I think many more that have been lost.
There’s a Polish club in my state that offers Polish language classes.
There is a very small group of Polish immigrants here, I’m thinking of taking the next class (the one offered is already in session). I live pretty far from where they’re at, but honestly, it’s a beautiful language.
Pictish.
It is a lost language from the British Isles and from one of the coolest populations in the area. They would paint patterns on their skin in blue then charge into battle naked. I reckon their insults and swearing would be absolutely raucous.
If you want some idea what it might have been like, it would probably be about as close to Welsh as Welsh is to Breton.
… which might not be all that helpful as a factoid, so here’s Wikipedia’s Swadesh list for the Celtic languages: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Celtic_Swadesh_lists
(In loosely related news, you know you might have been reading too much about linguistics when, while scanning the above, you recognise the Welsh word “benyw” as a cognate for the English word “queen”, (but with a meaning closer to Norwegian “kvinne”). That was a kick in the head for sure.)
Tokein’s elvish, or other language I think he constructed several unique languages just for his backstory.
His cousin and him made their own language growing up they used to talk to each other, so it didn’t start with his books.
Nahuatl. It’s one of the indigenous languages of Mexico. It’s what the people of Tenochtitlan and several other cities spoke.
When people think “Aztec” it’s that language.
JAPANESE
I wanna watch Anime without needing subtitles…
Also sometimes meaning get lose in translation…
I’d love to rewatch Steins;Gate with proficiency in Japanese.
Oh btw, I have never met a Japanese person (I mean maybe I could’ve had walked passed by an ethnic Japanese that have been too Americanized for me to know their ethnicity… cuz then they’re just “Asian American” to me, and it’d be hard to tell) and never heard anyone IRL actually speaking Japanese fluently…
So yea knowledge of Japanese can impress a lot of Western weebs.
I could even pretend to be Japanese for the lulz… since I’m ethnic Chinese and I doubt most Americans would even be able to tell the difference xD (I mean I probably can’t tell apart East Asian ethnicities either, despite me being East Asian myself)
Good news, if you can read and write Chinese you’re already partly there!
Whatever language the Voynich manuscript is written in.
“Region” would have to be extremely small around here to not include someone who speaks almost any (natural) language a typical person could think of.
I’ll just go ahead and answer a different question: If I could instantly learn any language and my SO could instantly learn it also, I’d pick ASL, because it would be very nice to have a way to communicate that works where talking either doesn’t work (loud places, for example) or would disturb others, or just across a large room.
Oh, sign language could be a good one!
Japanese, for the media. But really…
Loxian. The language was created by Enya’s songwriter, Roma Ryan, and the two of them are the only users of Loxian. Ryan’s husband Nicky (Enya’s producer) passed way last year, and his wife is probably not far behind. She’s in her 80s (Enya is in her mid-60s herself).
It is a real language and it exists in exactly five songs by Enya. The best one IMO being The Loxian Gate. The only reason we have translations is because Roma herself has written them, and we have to take her at her word that they are accurate, because it’s her language.
If you don’t want to look up any songs and hear it, it sounds like Gaelic (traditional Irish language) with some Elvish (like from Lord of the Rings, which Enya did the song May it Be from, and sang part of it in Elvish) mixed in.
