Ten most uncommon languages

There are thousands of languages spoken by thousands of people worldwide, with thousands and thousands of different dialects. Many of them cease to exist due to the fact that there are no more people to speak them. 

Here are ten languages spoken by so few people that they are not even known for most of us:

1. Chamicuro language

Chamicuro is the rarest language, being spoken by only 8 people in the world. It is the language of Chamicuro, native Amerindians from the Pampa Hermosa, placed on the Huallaga River in Peru. This population consisted of 20 people, but only adults speak Chamicuro while the other 12 young ones speak only Spanish. Despite the fact that a Chamicuro dictionary was created in 2000, chances are minimal that this language will survive in the future.

2. Basque language

Spoken along the borderline between France and Spain by over 600,000 people, the Basque language is an enigma for linguists, not being an Indo-European language and having no linguistic relationship to other languages. Many linguists have tried to find a link to other languages, such as Etruscan language, African languages, Caucasian languages or Japanese, but so far there were no conclusive results, studies being based on just a few similar words. Other linguists believe that this is the last survivor of a nearly extinct family language that was native to the area prior to the development of Indo-European languages.

3. Frisian language

Frisian is the closest language to English (unless we consider the Scottish language, which is considered by some scholars an English dialect). Frisian and English are both ​​West Germanic languages (such as Yiddish and standard German). Frisian speakers are actually Dutch living in the Netherlands and Germany. Although they do not understand each other, sample texts from the Frisian language prove that the two languages ​​show/sound very similar, such as in the phrase 'Brea, bûter en griene tsiis is goes Ingelsk en goes Frysk' (in English, 'Rye bread , butter and green cheese is good English and good Fries').

4. Miao languages

Miao population is a minority in southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand, who speaks a variety of languages, generally known as Miao-Yao languages ​​or Hmong-Mien. With over 9 million speakers, Hmong languages ​​(Miao, Meo) are totally different from Cantonese or Mandarin. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the language is the system of writing used . Traditionally orthographically represented in different interpretations of the Chinese writing system, Pollard writing was created especially for the ​​Miao languages, loosely based on the Latin alphabet. Today, most Miao speakers write using the standard Latin alphabet.

5. Feroese language

Faroese language (Føroyskt MAL) is a language belonging to the West Scandinavian languages of the ​​North Germanic language family and is spoken by approximately 48,000 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands. Linguists believe that the Faroese language was intelligible with the old Northwest language, being related to the Norn language of Orkney and Shetland.

6. Sarsi language

Also known as the Sarcee, it is the language of the Tsuu T'ina Native Americans tribe from southern Canada, which is actually very similar to that spoken by the natives in southern Navajo, USA. Both languages are part of the Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dene language family. In the world there are only 50 speakers of this language, mostly very old with very few children recognizing it as their mother tongue. There is a documented system of writing, which is consistent with the findings of some linguists, that the Aboriginal culture and history is transmitted orally and not in writing.

7. Tok Pisin language

Despite their small size, the islands that make up the Papua New Guinea are linguistically dense, with over 800 languages ​​spoken, being the most linguistically diverse in the world. Of these languages​​, only three are recognized as official state languages​​, Tok Pisin, an English-based creole, being one of them. With phrases like "gras bilong few" ("grass, belonging to the face" - grass belonging to the face or beard), it sounds almost like childish English speakers, but it's spoken by most people, including those who speak other minority language​​. A particularly interesting aspect of the language is the multitude of personal pronouns. Although Creole is based on English, it has a more complex set of personal pronouns. While English language differentiates only between individuals first, second and third, singular or plural, Tok Pisin has only the first person exclusive, first person inclusive, second and third person, which can in turn be expressed as single, double, triple or plural.

8. Khoisan languages

Khoisan languages ​​are a group of about 20 languages ​​that have as a distinctive feature the original and extensive use of various types of "clicks", sounds produced by the rapid release of air flow in the oral cavity. The languages ​​are currently spoken by a few hundred thousand people in southern and eastern Africa, but the Khoisan language's genetic unity is very disputed because they are not at all similar to the old tribes dialects. Some of Khoisan languages ​​are either dead or spoken by a very small number of people, and many of them have no writing system.

9. Shona language

Niger-Congo language family contains over 1,500 languages​​, most of which are concentrated in the Volta-Congo group, half being part of Bantu subgroup. The most common language of this subset is Shona, with over 11 million native speakers, being the official language of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Even if it is an official language and is taught in school, they are limiting only in teaching shone language and literature, the other subjects in the curriculum being taught in English.

10. Silbo language

Guan silbo language is specific to the population on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands. It is called in Spanish 'El Silbo' (whistle) because the language is not pronounced, but whistled, in order to be heard at great distances. This language was widely used by the peasants who worked the mountainous area of the island because it transmits more than a spoken language. 

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