LingosMio Blog The Most Obscure languages in the World

The Most Obscure languages in the World You may have heard of languages like Spanish and French, and why wouldn't you? After all, they are some of the most widely spoken and learned languages in the world right now. Both considered the essential languages of the world, they are famous and widely spoken. But what about the not so known languages? Which are the tongues that are slowly fading into obscurity as people are forgetting about their existences each and every single day? On that note, let us take a brief look at some of the rarest and most obscure languages in the world today. Mossi: Mossi is typically spoken along the outskirts of the northern half of Ghana, and is associated closely with the Frafra language. Traditionally it is the language of the Mossi people, but it is also spoken by some people along the Ivory Coast, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin, which roughly translates to less than 6 million speakers of the Mossi language. However, at the same time, Mossi people consist of the largest local group in the land of Burkina Faso. In the land of Burkina-Faso, the Mossi language is typically written in a version of the Latin alphabet which is derived from the l'Alphabet national burkinabè which is also known as the National Burkinan Alphabet. Although this was coined in 1976, it was officially adopted and saw large scale during from the year 1979. Sentinelese: Considered one of the most obscure languages in the world, the Sentinelese language still remains shrouded in mystery even to this day. It is assumed that the language is spoken by the Sentinelese people who live along the North Sentinel Island situated in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands region in India. Since these people have not been in touch with others in the main land, not much is known about the Sentinelese language, but experts agree that it has its roots in the Ongan languages. However, since very little is known about the tribe, there is absolutely no way to determine how many people speak the language. Since only one tribe speaks the language, the Sentinelese language is considered to be endangered. Balochi: Typically spoken by the Balochi people, it is one of the many languages spoken in Northern Iran. In the Nīmrūz province in the region of Afghanistan, Balochi is the primary language. But there also happen to be small groups of Balochi speakers scattered all across the land, typically extending up to the Soviet frontier. According to a statistical survey done in the year 2007, the total number of people in the world who speak the Balochi language is roughly 7.6 million. Up until the 19th century, there were no written versions of the Balochi language, since it was ususally spoken only in the courts. The Balochi language, in turn, has two official dialects - the one spoken by members of the northern Mandwani tribes, and the other which is spoken by the members of the southern Mazaris tribes. Xhosa: The Xhosa is one of the official languages in the region of South Africa, with over 8 million speakers worldwide, according to a statistical study conducted during the year 2007. Over the years, like most languages, the Xhosa language too has come to be interlinked with other languages like Afrikaans and English, which leads experts to believe that the original "pure" form of the Xhosa language is more or less lost throughout history. One of the most interesting things about the Xhosa language is that one single word can have a wide range of meanings, but they all depend on which tone and which pitch you are using while saying the word, and the language as a whole, involves a lot of "click" sounds. The clicks are usually apparent when talking and writing, but the tones are not understood when it is written down. Pawnee: The Pawnee language is spoken by some Pawnee Native American people who are now living in the region of Oklahoma. Originally, these people were indigenous to the region of Nebraska. It is one of the rarest languages in the world, and due to fast intermingling of the English language, people expect this language to become extinct in the next few years since the younger generations prefer learning English to Pawnee. On the surface, Pawnee appears to be a simple language, because it consists of only four short vowels with four other longer counterparts and nine consonants. However, one word in Pawnee can have more than twenty syllables. There are two known dialects of the Pawnee language - the South Band and the Skiri dialects, which are widely used. Khoisan: The Khoisan language, which is usually spoken in Southern Africa, is considered the oldest language of the region, and is also an extension of the Bantu language. Unlike the Xhosa language, it is relatively less spoken since the people speaking this language live in distant and yet to be explored parts of the continents, which means that language too is dying out. Typically, it is spoken by members of the Khoikhoi as well as the Sam community. The details of the language are yet unknown. The main problem that arises with understanding the Khoisan language is that it shares a lot of common properties with the other extensions of the Bantu language, and as is the case with most languages being spoken by people living in a country with multiple languages, it has become intermingled with other languages and dialects. So there you go, a small list of some of the most obscure languages in the world. Of course, there are also a large number of languages which are dying out, for instance, the Taa language which is a lot like the Khoisan language. Suffice to say, it is the indigenous languages which seem to be dying out fast. But, did we miss anything? Is there one obscure language that you know of which is not on our list? Leave a comment in the section below and let us know