The language only three men speak - BBC News

Badeshi used to be the common languages of a small mountain village in northern Pakistan - now there are only three people left who can speak it.

Video by Zafar Syed, BBC Urdu

[woori]

when a language dies not only words, grammar rules, vocabulary dies but also the hundreds or thousands of years of cultural knowledge from generations

[muhammadshaffin]

"The language only three men speak"

The translator: 🗿

[olivermoore]

For the people saying "Surely the translator spoke it to!" (Or variations thereof). The translator would have spoken a more commonly spoken language that the three men also understand (a lingua franca).

Translator (in lingua franca): "Say something in Badeshi"

Three men: "[speaks Badshi] - that was 'This is a beautiful village' [in lingua franca]".

[cursedtortilla]

Imagine being bilingual in Badeshi and trying to put it on your resume to find out only 2 other people speak it 💀

Edit: Some people really take things literally

[benthejrporter]

I hope it can be saved by people learning it. My great uncle and aunt were some of the last native speakers of "Groesbeeks", a dialect spoken in just one small town in the south east of the Netherlands. But then the local university recorded hours of conversation with them and wrote a book about it, with a dictionary and grammar. Now a few students are learning it.

[ChristophersMum]

This needs to be researched before these men die, so people can trace their cultural past.

[ZHx-srqk]

Looked it up on wikipedia and it says that the linguist Zubair Torwali is trying to preserve/record it. Hopefully more people will learn it so it wouldn't get lost in time for good

[hestonworld]

I live in Tajikistan, and here we've got an ethnic group called the Yaghnabs who speak Yaghnabi which is the ancient Sogdi language of a society that's lived in the territory of Tajikistan more than 6000 years ago, i.e. around 4000 BC. And it can be considered as one of the most ancient languages of the world. But sadly, the language is endangered and can be lost because the new generations are emigrating from the Yaghnab Valley and assimilating among natives. Yaghnabs live in a valley far from civilization, and each year their population is drastically diminishing. Unfortunately, the grammar, vocabulary and all its written structure has been lost to time, meaning that the language has been preserved only in its spoken form by their elders hence making its learning almost impossible. It really makes me sad to think that somewhere in the future there will be no people left to speak this language that has existed for centuries.

[cerdaspediaindonesia]

Just make the badeshi dictionary in some big pile of stone to freaked out the future archiologyst.

[Kianglekable]

Document this language, and the wisdom it embodies!

I know this because I'm a speaker of a language under siege by more dominant ones

I must say that we're in a healthier position than Badeshi, but I can't help but feel sorry for its plight

A loss for humanity

[mariyam]

I'm so glad they got interviewed, they seemed wizened and proud as the last 3 speakers of Badeshi. It sounds so similar to Urdu, with the words for "my name" and "my village" being almost the same, with slightly different pronunciations... if the native Urdu speakers of Pakistan to pick up no Badeshi and the language won't be totally gone... also the last word Said Gul said was "khatam" meaning end or demise in Urdu too.

[anthemsofeurope]

"Meen naao" (my name in english) sounds like German "Mein Nam(e)". It is 100% a indoeuropean language. Its sad to see one of our brother languages dying out

[shashishekharjha]

language shouldn't die they are heart of our emotions and expressions

[fakename]

Three guys translating all those wikipedia articles to Badeshi. Thats a lot of work!

[hhamk]

God bless these amazing men of the Earth

[Cassiemorg]

I’ve been reading about Badeshi. It’s a beautiful language, and it makes me sad that when these three men die, it will die with them😢This is a language that has not been classified as a spoken language for at least three generations....it’s incredible that these men still speak it. I speak English and French, and recently I’ve been attempting to learn Mandingo. I was planning to try to learn Arabic next, but I would love to learn Badeshi, but for obvious reasons, I haven’t been able to find someone to learn it from. I bet these three men have fascinating stories to share😊It’s amazing that they have kept this beautiful language alive for this long 💙

[imaginx]

Sounds like Russian, Urdu and Arabic put together.

[xybocum]

Something needs to be done to document archive all these various languages, mythologies, etc.

[classicalchad]

Me and my boys on BBC after inventing our own language

[lizy]

When I read the title I thought that three guys just got together and decided to make up their own secret language haha! This is much sadder.