Anyone learning rare/endangered languages?

[Parahq]

I have taken an interest in studying Estremeñu (language of the Extremadura region), and have become focused on that for the time being. Only know the very basics of the language at this point in time.. Wonder how many foreigners besides me have lol. Sometime I want to also study some of the endangered and rare languages of North America, and those of Asia and other parts of Europe.

[----]

I've studied !Xóõ before for quite a bit (I stopped because of lack of resources, Anthony Traill's grammar is like 70 dollars, and the dictionary is as well), and UNESCO lists it as "definitely endangered." As of 2007 it only has 6000 speakers, which is more than some, but quite a small amount with all things considered. It depresses me that such an amazing language is almost certain to die out.

[Cathbad]

I once planned on studying Mehri, but have abandoned the thought of it for now. I just think that it's not really productive to learn a language unless you really learn it - and then it has to become an important part of your life one way or another. If you're not planning with really linking to its people and their culture, then it doesn't make any sense to dedicate yourself to Learning it, as far as my philosophy of language learning goes.

NB: I'm not saying people shouldn't learn endangered languages; I'm just saying I personally wouldn't unless it was for some reason very important for me to do so, in very general terms - i.e., holistically speaking regarding my life, not just for a hobby (primarily because I've noticed that unless I really really dedicate myself to learning a language, I retain very little of it). So if I had a very good friend whose L1 was endangered, or worked in a region where the language was spoken, or would be working on a grammar or dictionary of the language or whatever, I would definitely make an effort to learn it.

[Astraios]

I'm learning Lakota, Basque, Maltese, Irish, and North Sámi, so that's a mix of rare and endangered.

[Bristel]

I guess I'm learning Irish. Catalan can be considered "rare" but only from the standpoint that it isn't commonly spoken outside of the Països Catalans.

[Wattmann]

I'm considering taking my Icelandic and North Saami learning to a far more serious level (well, only Saami - I know next to nothing of it except how to pronounce words)

[Skomakar'n]

I suppose Faroese is fairly rare (although also comparably very common in comparison to those languages with a thousand speakers left), but it's probably not endangered, and it's not at all exotic. ;p

Oh, right, and I started a little on Scottish Gaelic, but never got too far.

Oh? Icelandic counts? Icelandic, then.

[Rui]

Not really. The rarest language I've actually learned is Afrikaans (6 million native, 15-23 million total, according to Wikipedia); I do plan on learning Finnish at some point, which is also not particularly rare, but definitely confined to one area.

I used to be really interested in Irish (I still kind of am, but not to a large extent), but back in high school when I realized that I couldn't learn every language, my interest waned considerably. I still remember my very first post on the ZBB was about Irish, actually.

[Astraios]

I couldn't learn every language

Lalala not listeningggg.

[Skomakar'n]

I couldn't learn every language

Lalala not listeningggg.

Indeed. That's not the proper spirit, Chibi!

[Mashmakhan]

I want to get into Nahuatl and Tamil but I don't think either of those are endangered yet. Even if they were, hard sources have been rather difficult for me to attain. Some languages I would like to get into that I know are endangered are Chukchi, Baka, and Hmong. The only language I have experience with that might be considered endangered is Cook Island Maori.

[Skomakar'n]

Oh. I need to learn Maori too.

[Rui]

I couldn't learn every language

Lalala not listeningggg.

Indeed. That's not the proper spirit, Chibi!

Hey, in my defense, I do have a longer list than everyone I know (...in real life...): I already speak English and German, and a good amount of Mandarin, and a *little bit* of Afrikaans, and I want to learn Finnish, Portuguese, Xhosa, and Korean at some point...and maybe Japanese, and Schwäbisch, if you count it as different from German.

That's 8-10, which is almost every language!

[Skomakar'n]

I couldn't learn every language

Lalala not listeningggg.

Indeed. That's not the proper spirit, Chibi!

Hey, in my defense, I do have a longer list than everyone I know (...in real life...): I already speak English and German, and a good amount of Mandarin, and a *little bit* of Afrikaans, and I want to learn Finnish, Portuguese, Xhosa, and Korean at some point...and maybe Japanese, and Schwäbisch, if you count it as different from German.

That's 8-10, which is almost every language!

I've studied lots of Portuguese and an increasingly large amount of Finnish already and Xhosa and Korean are both on my future list! Just tag along and try to keep up with the rapid pace of polyglottal aspirations! >:D It's so much fun!

[Astraios]

Speak ALL THE LANGUAGES!

[Bristel]

Speak ALL THE LANGUAGES!

ALL THE DAMN LANGUAGES

[Skomakar'n]

You're starting to understand!

[Drydic]

Just use [bɑwip ɡɹɑnɑwip nɪn:ibɑm], it's the universal greeting.

[kuroda]

I have studied Even, Evenki, and Nanai, all of which are rare and endangered. But I never became anything like fluent and have not tried to keep them up... which would be difficult, logistically, in any case.

Manchu was a major focus in my academic career and I still putter around with it for fun. But I consider it a dead language... yes, there are some very elderly native speakers left of something that bears a distinct relationship to Xibo and literary Manchu; and there are "born-again Manchus" in the PRC at least teaching themselves Manchu... but that to me is a phenomenon more like the rebirth of Hebrew (knock on wood) than continuity. And I don't count Xibo as a survival of Manchu because, as far as I understand it, the Xibo don't.

I've worked professionally and as a volunteer on a couple native language preservation projects in the Pacific Northwest. As much as I would have enjoyed studying those languages, that's not what I was there to do and in fact would have been not very welcomed by the communities in question. I have fiddled around with some Mohawk language materials -- my granddad was a Mohawk, so if they objected that'd be my alibi -- but damn it's weird, even by my standards, and I couldn't find any speakers out on this coast to work with.

So, uh, I guess my answer is "no"

[Hakaku]

I'm currently studying Plains Cree at university and also learning and documenting the Okinawan language during my spare time. That's about it for now.

[Rory]

Statistics time!

More than half of the world's languages are spoken by less than or equal to 10,000 speakers. Almost a quarter of the world's languages are spoken by less than or equal to 1,000 speakers. If you just chose a language at random, it's very likely to be rare, and quite likely to be endangered.

[dhok]

How many languages account for 99% of the world's population?

(Or, conversely, what percentage of languages is spoken by just 1% of the world population- as in, once you strike out the 99% languages, how many are left?)

[Rory]

Well, according to Wikipedia, the top 10 languages are spoken by 2,682,000,000 people natively. Let's assume that there are 6,790,000,000 people in the world; the top 10 languages account for 39.4%.

[linguoboy]

I guess I'm learning Irish.

Wait, what?

[Bristel]

I guess I'm learning Irish.

Wait, what?

I haven't been paying much attention to my Teach Yourself Irish book or CDs lately.