What are the Top 20 Most Obscure Languages in the World?

At some point in your life, you’ve probably tried or considered learning a language different from your native language. But the first languages that come to your mind are probably the basic lingos like Spanish, German, Korean, or Arabic. These are the lingos studied by the majority. But if you want to be different, this article will explore all the obscure languages that you could learn.

But there are plenty of people who do not know what obscure languages. You need not be worried as we will provide all about the obscure lingos.

So let’s start right away!

What are obscure languages?

An obscure language is not known to general language learners. They are the minority languages that are either regional or hard to learn therefore many people neglect them. These lingos are not a widespread or most useful option which proves that they are rare. Keeping in view all of this, it is too easy to conclude that these lingos have the lowest number of speakers. If you plan to learn them, keep up to date with the language learning tips and resources. Also, check out the rarest languages of the world.

Now let’s learn the 20 topmost obscure languages!

What are the top 20 most obscure languages on the planet?

Though, the list of obscure lingos is pretty long but we will discuss the top 20 obscure languages of the planet that many people still speak. These are the following:

1. Archi

According to estimation, Archi has only 1200 speakers. It is spoken in a small village of Southern Russia called Archib. What makes it obscure and unusual is that its words can be conjugated in 1.5 million different ways. The alphabets of this lingo consist of 26 vowel phonemes and about 74 to 82 consonants. Therefore, it inhibits the common rumor that English is the most difficult language to learn.

2. Cornish

It is the most famous example of an extinct language. It also has fewer speakers unless you live in Cornwell. Its uniqueness is that it sounds pretty cool. Cornish music is very interesting but you can only understand it after learning Cornish lingo. Along with that, a person living in Cornwell has mixed the best parts of modern pop music and traditional Cornish music. This is what makes it obscure.

3. Michif

It is the language of Metis people and it has less than 1000 speakers which makes it pretty rare. It was created based on the desire for cultural identity. But it is quite simple, conceptually. Additionally, it is a mixture of the American language i.e. French nouns and Cree verbs. This unique combination makes it obscure.

4. Leonese

Leonese is a language that people living in Spain speak. It is the most obscure language in the entire world and is known by only a few people. As a language of Spain, it is also a romance language. Consequently, it is not present in Google Translator which proves its rarity. Some books have no translation other than Leonese.

5. Piraha

The region of this lingo is the Amazon rainforest, Brazil. It has an approximate number of 380 native speakers. It is the only surviving dialect of the Mura languages. Though it has few speakers it has no threat of extinction.

6. Silbo Gomero

La Gomero, Canary Island is the region of this lingo. It has about 22,000 native speakers. The people of La Gomero island certainly do not care about the verbs, nouns, and consonants. On this island, people have transformed Spanish to communicate it through whistles.

7. Sentinelese

The tribal people of North Sentinel Island speak this language. It is truly obscure because aside from the people of the island, nobody knows anything about it. The numbers of speakers of this lingo are unknown. It has a two-toned system.

8. Breton

It is a Celtic language and has origin in the Brittany, a region of France. The pronunciation of Breton is incredibly easy. In the coming era, it is seen that the number of speakers of this lingo are increasing. Even, Breton music is very sou.

9. Rotokas 

Rotokas is a very simple language having 4000 native speakers. Its region is Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. This lingo has merely 12 letters and 11 phonemes. Vowels have a long or short counterpart but you cannot differentiate them.

10. Koro

There are 800 speakers of this lingo in North-East India. It is a very different language from other languages relevant to it. Research says that the slaves of this give origin to this lingo. The extinction of this lingo would cause people to lose part of their heritage.

11. Belarusian

The resources of this lingo indicate that it has about 3 million native speakers. Its region in Belarus. It is an Eastern Slavic language that is pretty similar to Russian and Ukrainian. To an extent, we can say it is mutually intelligible. There are many Belarusian immigrants in America.

12. Pawnee

Unfortunately, the speakers of this lingo are declining day by day. Pawnee’s alphabet is simple but they have many words, each with 30 syllables or more. Thankfully, teaching materials and machine translations have records of this lingo.

13. Catalan

This lingo is not as useful as its neighboring language i.e. Spanish. But you can find it in the good books of Catalan locals. If you are learning it, there are chances that your Spanish will also improve. You can even learn it online.

14. Xhosa

It is a fascinating language that is the tongue of 8 million South African. The most famous native speaker of this lingo was Nelson Mandela. It consists of different clicks and tones. The tone is very important in this language.

15. Ayapaneco

Unfortunately, this language is nearly extinct on this planet and has only 2 speakers. It has origins in Tabasco, Mexico. Previously, it was a minority lingo throughout the region but began to die with time.

16. Klingon

It is a language spoken anywhere where ‘Star Trek’ fans are present. The approximate number of speakers of this lingo is 30. It is not technically a real language. It was created by the series ‘Star Trek’ in which aliens from the planet Kronos speaks this language. Moreover, Mark Okrand gave it the status of full language.

17. Taa

Just like Xhosa, Taa is an African click language. Researchers indicate that this lingo has phonemes more than any other language in the world. According to some linguists, only one dialect of Taa has 164 consonants out of the 111 are click sounds.

18. Tibetan

If you ever want to communicate with a Buddhist monk, you need to learn this language. Comparing it with other lingoes like Sanskrit, learning Tibetan is much easier. Phonics of Tibetan are the easiest because everything is pronounced as it is written. To have it learn more easily, you need to absorb this lingo spiritually. The Tibetan Language Institute is one of the best language resources from where you can learn it. Furthermore, forming tenses in Tibetan is similar to that of European Languages.

19. Maltese

Among all other national languages, Maltese is the obscure one. Millions of people know about this fascinating lingo. It is pretty similar to Arabic and it has hints of Italian and English in it too. The vocabulary of this language is also very easy.

20. Occitan

Finally, the last obscure lingo is Occitan. If you love wine, then this language will best suit you. Occitan, in France, is famous for its wine. The region of this lingo is Languedoc-Roussillon. Moreover, unlike other unusual languages, it also does not have any official website or resource. So, if you want to learn, compile some learning resources by yourself.