10 Most Spoken Languages You've Never Heard Of (feat. Language Simp)

In language based discussions about language learning and linguistics occur, not all languages get time in the spotlight, here are the 10 most spoken languages you might not have heard of!
Special thanks to Language Simp for appearing in this video!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:32 Amharic
3:07 Kannada
5:10 Javanese
7:32 Hausa
9:50 Wu Chinese
12:36 Tamil
14:47 Telugu
16:31 Marathi
18:36 Punjabi
20:09 Nigerian Pidgin
22:22 Outro

Links to videos from others:
Japanese topic vs subject markers:
Korean topic vs subject markers:
Ergativity explained in detail:

Sources:
(Native speakers, Wikipedia, Language Gulper)

Special thanks to Wren for helping research for the Tamil and Telugu sections, and all the volunteers who reached out to proofread the video before launch

[LingoLizard]

Notes/Corrections:
A big thank you to all volunteers who did error-checking for this video

[SkylorKatiman]

I'm ethnically Javanese from the Surinamese diaspora. Most of us speak a creole version of the language, so sometimes Indonesian Javanese can catch me off-guard, but is largely understandable if not mixed with Indonesian. The speech registers have largely died out in Suriname simply due to the history of how the Javanese got here, but Krama Madya and Inggil exists in many traditional Javanese ceremonies, rituals, and prayers. One of my uncles is a Kejawen monk (a sort of syncretic belief system that mixes animism, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism) and he has alluded a few times to an ancient Javanese speech register that was used to specifically to speak to deities and mythical creatures (specifically those of Hinduism). I'm not exactly sure how true this is since I have really only ever heard him talk about it, but he is a very culturally knowledgeable and wise man, but I thought I'd like to share. Because of him and my upbringing, I am glad to say that I was taught Javanese in its original script and I hope it lives on. I don't see people use it much anymore, but I hope any fellow Javans in Indonesia are preserving our script and using it so it doesn't die out.

[arfansthename]

Fun fact: The Java programming language is named after the Java coffee, which is from Java!

[StealthySceptile]

Hello this is a comment from Stealthy, aka LingoLizard. I hope anyone reading this comment enjoys the video and has a nice day :)

[jeongbun]

As a South Asian, this is shocking yet understandable you guys don’t know all these languages. But still wow.

[Inescapeium]

Bengali is worth mentioning in this list, especially due to the fact that in 1952, many people in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) have sacrificed their lives for the language, as they protested against the imposition of Urdu by the central government of Pakistan. This happened on February 21 of that year, and every year we Bangladeshis celebrate International Mother Language Day, while at the same time we mourn the ones who died for our native tongue.

[randomir]

Hey, native javanese here👋
I want say thank you for LingoLizard for covering up this language, because of how many people that speak this language in Java (around 100mil~) although it's not popular.

Note : I love in the "Possessive Suffixes" part, you used "mata" (Eyes) as the object for the example. Cuz "matamu" and "matane" has a similar power like "your ass" for reaction to nonsense. So if someone says some nonsense or words that offending us, we will reacted with "MATAMU" or simply "YOUR ASS" 🤣

[weaseled]

One langauge that is definitely more known than the ones here, but is still really strongly underrepresented seems to be Bengali. It has 300 million speakers, and has some really cool history and literature, but is often ignored.

[skeleteg]

at 00:17 russian word пиздец (pisdietz) is a pejorative word and means "fucked up"

[nachiketmalpathak]

I'm a native Marathi speaker who's learning German. There are a few things that I've noticed are common to both:

- Retention of 3 genders (m/f/n) wherein inanimate objects can also be m/f
- Adding "in" to make a word feminine (mainly occupation). In Marathi, "kamgar" is worker, "kamgarin" is female worker, and so forth
- Use of "s" when conjugating verbs to 2nd person (informal). Ich mache = Me karto; Du machSt = Tu kartoS/karteS

[mwahaha]

as someone who comes from indian descent (albeit north indian) it was kind of shocking to me that people don't know tamil, telegu, marathi, and kannada. just goes to show how different everyone's experiences are.

[noistivmuestiliv]

As a native Punjabi speaker, I really like that Punjabi was mentioned in this list. I have seen so many lists talking of lesser known languages, or languages worth learning, and Punjabi was very rarely mentioned. Feels nice!

[SuryaMusings]

Wow, this video just made my day! As someone who speaks Telugu, I've never come across a video in the polyglot community analyzing my language before. I really enjoy watching language videos like the ones from Langfocus, where I get to learn about noun cases, verb inflections, and abugida, but I've never been able to compare it to my own language until now. I really hope more videos like this come out in the future. Thank you so much for creating this amazing video!

Oh, and here's a fun fact: Telugu only has two genders - one for "he" and another for both "she" and "it".
And it's called the "Italian of the East" because most of the words end in vowels.

PS: We do say bye in Telugu but it more like " lets meet again" - "మళ్ళీ కలుద్దాం" - "またね", " ok then" - " సరే అయితే "-"じゃね", " I'll take my leave/ that's all from me" - "ఉంటా" - "それでは" although they're more correct ways say but they all sound more formal. For some reason I feel like Telugu - Japanese have some similarities. This gets more exaggerated in Tamil - Korean

[kave]

The Wu languages are my favorite out of these. I always loved the way Shanghainese sounded in particular. Hopefully I can study it someday.

[kirchunetwork]

I am a Kannadiga and I am not surprised to find Kannada in this list. We Kannadigas integrate into which ever area we move into and learn that particular language and try to become part of it and don't impose language on others and that is one of the reason why our language is not known outside of our state of Karnataka. This has both positive and negative effects. On the positive side, our ability to learn new languages makes us easier to settle down in new places we move in and on negative side, our large heartedness is misused by people who move into our state and even after living there for decades refuses to learn the local language.

[deacudaniel]

When talking about Wu dialect group, I think Suzhounese also deserves to be mentioned, as it is considered the most pleasant sounding dialect in China.

[halagavi]

Sometime in the past I felt like language enthusiast were only interested in IE, Semitic, and East Asian languages...

Now that I've grown a tad bit older, that's not entirely wrong but merely one side of the coin—some people around me are ashamed of being heard speaking their language in public 🤷‍♂️ How would other people want to learn and appreciate our languages if it doesn't start from us?

[shahanshahpolonium]

I'm a native Kannada speaker, thanks for including our beautiful language :)
(note to language simp : i am also a gigachad polyglot, like you)

[Dhi_Bee]

I’m surprised I knew all of the languages referenced in the video. I think it’s because I’ve been a language, history, & geography nerd since I was a child. I’m not even saying this as an “American shocks people by knowing even the most basic things about other countries” sort of way. I’m just proud of myself & thought I’d share it because like I said…I surprised myself😂

[susanne]

As expected I knew next to nothing of all this. But I knew about Amharic and I remembered how much I liked their beautiful script. And I have at least heard about Javanese, Hausa, Tamil, Telugu and Punjabi before. Thank you very much!