Top 10 Rare Languages Still Spoken Around the World

What’s the least spoken language in the world? It might be one of these rare languages to learn. Whether it’s Archi, only spoken in a few Russian villages, Friulian, which has about 600 thousand speakers around the world, or Basque, spoken mainly near the Pyrenees mountains, these are some of the least spoken languages on the planet. WatchMojo counts down ten languages so scarce you won’t believe they’re still spoken.

#10: Friulian
#9: Tuyuca
#8: Yupik
#7: Pawnee
#6: Archi
#5: Pirahã
#4: Basque
#3, #2 & #1???



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[yourhighness]

My parents speak the language of dissapointment which was passed on from their parents and one day i will pass on to my children.

[vancehawkins]

The last fluent speaker of the Wichita language (related to the Pawnee your video mentioned) died just a few years ago. I have heard the Euchee language has just a few speakers still living. American Indian languages are going extinct constantly. In the early 20th century the U. S. government took children to boarding schools, and punished them if they were using their own language. You could have a list of the 50 rarest languages in the world and never leave the Americas.

[shanelottriet]

How is Xhosa a rare language? Isolated but definitely not rare.

[JOHN----DOE]

How does Welsh rate but not Scots Gaelic, which is probably a lot rarer?

[raytonks]

My university offers a course in Nootka, a language spoken by indigenous people on Vancouver Island with about 8000 speakers. It's nearly dying out, or at least was at some point, but there's a program to save it as well. I thought about taking it and even if I went for a more practical language for now, I may learn it later if the course is still offered then.

[Gnarkill]

Xhosa is spoken by 7.6 million people.... so rare!

[roflnb]

The Sami languages were completely forgotten from the list. They boast around 20-30, 000 native speakers mostly in the Scandinavian Lapland. It actually comprises of multiple distinct Sami languages, back from a time where villages were so isolated in the arctic cold that they had their own languages altogether, and the 30, 000 speakers are all these 10 or so languages combined.

[sammygirl]

They mention Welsh but ignore Manx and Cornish, which are much rarer (about 1800 Manx speakers and 400 Cornish)

[hulaqde]

Some Indigenous Languages should have included like Hawaiian and I only say that is because the missionaries forbade its use and by the early 1900's is was rarely used.There was a comeback as more schools taught it in the classroom but to this day my mother, father and us kids (we're in our 50's and 60's) do not know how to speak except some words and in Pidgin English. My G-pa and his siblings spoke fluent Hawaiian and I could understand but not speak it back. How sad. Do NOT let another culture override yours or risk losing your Culture to assimilation.

[Euskalbikoizketak]

The funny thing is that the example of basque you have put in this video is Bizkaiera, one of the dialects that Basque has. The language changes a lot depending of which part of the basque country you go. I speak it totally differently for example.

[Kyotosomo]

9. "With about 140 genders-"
Must be a popular language on Tumblr

[MaiNtive]

The Ainu language in Hokkaido is up there with the most endangered languages

[judewojcik]

Cornish should’ve gotten an honourable mention

[jeffaholics]

No language is more “difficult” than another, it’s all based on how distant and different the language is from one’s mother tongue that determines the difficulty of one learning.

[circassianlondoner]

Why only stop at Archi? All the languages of Caucasus are rare, unique and isolate. Including North-West Caucasian languages: Circassian(58 letters alphabet) Abkhazian and extinct Ubykh(88 letters alphabet); North-East Caucasian: Nakh-Daghestani (Chechen, Ingush, Avar, Dargin, Lezgin, etc; and South Caucasian Kartvelian languages.

[peterlynch]

Oh boy, this is a title sure to bring out the "well actually" crowd.

[sasachiminesh]

I speak Nipmuc, which has only about 15-20 living speakers.

[greengreen]

Irish(and Scottish Gaelic) and Coptic(direct decendant of ancient Egyptian) should have been mentioned

[ConnorGhostHeart]

That's awesome! I am Friulan / Furlane. Crazy, never thought there'd be any sort-of large scale recognition for our language. Wild! Thanks, WatchMojo for this exposure. As we like to say, Grasie.

[gregszy]

I am surprised not to see the mention of Manx while Welsh has been mentionned.
The other is Romanche, some people still speak this language in Switzerland.