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.
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”)
Probably either Latin or Gaelic. Both just sound neat.
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.
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.
Dog.
Are there really no dogs in the area?
There are, but they all speak cat.
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.
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.
“The most developed Non-fictional language that isn’t used by any life (or system created by said life) native to this solar system.”
It’ll either return the magic equivalent of a 404 error, or I get some absolutely ground breaking confirmation / become a human Rosetta Stone to get a jump on first contact!
Whatever language the Voynich manuscript is written in.
Dutch, French or Japanese.
Dutch because I would like to live in or at least visit the Netherlands some day,
French or Japanese because French is interesting and learning Japanese unlocks a whole other side of the internet (and UI design), and anime without subtitles.
Out of those I’d probably pick Japanese, as Dutch is relatively easier to learn by non-magical means.
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.)
Nobody in my region?
I’d be surprised if I could find one with any use beyond a small community in an undeveloped part of the world.
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.
I live in a large city, I reckon most languages must be spoken by at least a few people around me. Not even considering so-called dead languages.
That being said, I would love to learn Chinese. I think I’ll see next year if I can enroll in one of the few courses available in said large city (Paris). I’ve just started learning Russian something which, I imagine in our so incredibly nuanced times, coupled with me also wanting to learn Chinese, will make me quite suspicious. That’s fine ;)
Lakota:
-
Help preserve an endangered language
-
I’ve always wanted to learn it
-
Useful when I go back home
-
and frankly, it’s probably the only language I’d want to learn without a community of native speakers in Chicago
-
