The Strangest Language

[Meryuma]

Welsh. Definately Welsh. The writing for it looks all funny. Also Italian's pretty weird to me.

I love Italian, sounds cool too me.

Italian isn't weird at all. It's a pretty standard Romance language, really.

[Zephie]

I love Italian, sounds cool too me.

Italian isn't weird at all. It's a pretty standard Romance language, really.

Yeah, it's pretty clear a lot of people in this topic don't know what they are talking about.

[Norstal]

I'd have to say Russian. It's words are really long and it sounds very alien to my ears. Behind that is Mandarin, because it is very off base comparted to European languages.

What is the strangest language, NS?

Brainfuck. Don't know what it is?

Code: Select all

+++++ +++++             initialize counter (cell #0) to 10
[                       use loop to set the next four cells to 70/100/30/10
    > +++++ ++              add  7 to cell #1
    > +++++ +++++           add 10 to cell #2
    > +++                   add  3 to cell #3
    > +                     add  1 to cell #4
    <<<< -                  decrement counter (cell #0)
]                   
> ++ .                  print 'H'
> + .                   print 'e'
+++++ ++ .              print 'l'
.                       print 'l'
+++ .                   print 'o'
> ++ .                  print ' '
<< +++++ +++++ +++++ .  print 'W'
> .                     print 'o'
+++ .                   print 'r'
----- - .               print 'l'
----- --- .             print 'd'
> + .                   print '!'
> .                     print '\n'

This means Hello World in Brainfuck, as you might have guessed.

[Qazox]

I'm disappointed. So far, I regret to say, most the choices in this thread (at least when I started writing this post) have been fairly uninspired - largely restricted to mainstream European and Asian languages; though I'll give Angleter mod cookies for Manchu (Islamic Hazarastan only gets half a mod cookie, for failing to recognise that there are at least nine distinct living Sami languages, even if only two of them have over 1000 speakers, and only one has over 10,000 speakers).

But one of the strangest languages has to be Hixkaryana. Spoken by some 500 indigenous Brazilians deep in the Amazon rainforest, it was the first Object-Verb-Subject (OVS) language ever described. In other words, where English speakers say "the jaguar ate the man", Hixkaryana has to take the word order "the man ate the jaguar" (or rather "toto yonoye kamara" - male person eat [past tense] jaguar); but with the same meaning as in English.

OVS is the rarest of possible sentence word orders. There are other languages which occasionally permit OVS (though even highly inflected languages with complex case systems that can hypothetically permit any word order often prefer a more common specific order - see Russian), but the number which require OVS is vanishingly small, limited to three or four indigenous languages of the Americas, none of which have over 5000 speakers.

So basically they speak "backwards"?

Esperanto. i know it is a created language, but half the words/phrases don't make any sense:

For example: Esperanto 1st then English (via Wikipedia):

Kiel vi nomiĝas?--

What is your name?

Bone--

All right

amuziĝi--

To enjoy oneself

lernejo--

School

Not to mention that hearing someone speak it makes them sound like they are trying to speak German in a fake Russian accent in French!

[Hresejnen]

Blackfoot. Ridiculously fusional, with whole sentences being single words. I personally love the example on Wiki:

áakokaawa, "s/he will rope" vs. áakookaawa, "s/he will sponsor a sundance"

Reminds me of siZulu/siSwati :
ngiyadlala bantfwana - I am playing with the children
ngiyalala bantfwana - I am sleeping with the children.

There's a mistake you don't want to make.

Haha! Yeah, some African languages are pretty nutty, also because of the clicks. I really don't know how those wound up evolving naturally.

[The Steamy Hot Burrito]

The ambassador of the Oppressed Peoples of the Steamy Hot Burrito, founding nation of Ye Olde Ganja Republic, hereby registers her astonishment at the Chupacabran language, whose nouns cannot be differentiated from verbs, and whose diphthongs sound more like triphthongs.

[Cadonica]

English. So many rules, so many exceptions, so many exceptions to the exceptions.

Not to mention the expections to exceptions of exceptions.

Finnish.
Not maybe strangest but with no doubt one of the hardest. Strange, yes: No other language has so many swear words. Russian has more ugly, but Finnish has more swear, serious swear words. Most known is "Perkele!" If you listen to today's teenagers talking nearly every third word is "Vittu" best translation is "Fuck"

[Patriqvinia]

No one is going to say it? I have to say it?
Gangsta.

Uh what what in the hizhouse dawg!

[Hellsgrind]

Mandarin.

[Former Principalities]

I'd have to say that the Greek alphabet nowadays is quite strange. When I was on holiday there a few months ago, I tried to teach myself the rest of the alphabet (as I already knew some of it) as a way to pass time while driving through there.... soooo confusing.

Although for strange languages... as much as I love it, the language of the Pygmy tribes in Africa (such as the Kalahari bushmen) are very strange indeed... especially because in English the way we represent their tongue-clicking noise is with an '!'... there is one tribe there whose name in English is !Kung.... awesome, but strange. Suomi is also a bit strange to listen too..

[Meryuma]

I'd have to say that the Greek alphabet nowadays is quite strange. When I was on holiday there a few months ago, I tried to teach myself the rest of the alphabet (as I already knew some of it) as a way to pass time while driving through there.... soooo confusing.

Although for strange languages... as much as I love it, the language of the Pygmy tribes in Africa (such as the Kalahari bushmen) are very strange indeed... especially because in English the way we represent their tongue-clicking noise is with an '!'... there is one tribe there whose name in English is !Kung.... awesome, but strange. Suomi is also a bit strange to listen too..

Greek alphabet is relatively normal, the Latin alphabet is even descended from it. It's fairly phonetic, it has uppercase and lowercase... why the hell you think it's "quite strange", I have no clue. Also, bushmen aren't pygmies.

[The Archregimancy]

My vote goes to North Sentinelese, if only because it is near impossible to learn.

It's impossible to learn because it's impossible to visit North Sentinel island. It's a classic case study in anthropology - all attempts at face to face interaction have been rejected by the Sentinelese, and the Indian government stopped trying (or allowing anyone to try) over 20 years ago. As such there is no grammar, no word list, no linguistic description of any kind.

Which, yes, makes it 'near impossible to learn' - but only because we don't know anything about it, rather than any inherent complexity or strangeness in the language.


But as our only Nahuatl speaker on NS (imperfectly, by your own admission, but that's still better than any of the rest of us), I would have thought you could provide us with some interesting specific linguistic examples of your own. You are our Nahuatl tomachizoa (I think; here's hoping I haven't just accidentally insulted anyone; I took that word from a commentary on the Florentine Codex....).

Edit: All already dealt with, realistically. Should have read the entire thread.

[Former Principalities]

I'd have to say that the Greek alphabet nowadays is quite strange. When I was on holiday there a few months ago, I tried to teach myself the rest of the alphabet (as I already knew some of it) as a way to pass time while driving through there.... soooo confusing.

Although for strange languages... as much as I love it, the language of the Pygmy tribes in Africa (such as the Kalahari bushmen) are very strange indeed... especially because in English the way we represent their tongue-clicking noise is with an '!'... there is one tribe there whose name in English is !Kung.... awesome, but strange. Suomi is also a bit strange to listen too..

Greek alphabet is relatively normal, the Latin alphabet is even descended from it. It's fairly phonetic, it has uppercase and lowercase... why the hell you think it's "quite strange", I have no clue. Also, bushmen aren't pygmies.

My bad... how dumb do I look

I guess that my comment on the Greek alphabet is slightly biased since it was a new experience at the time.

Although I would also have to agree with some others here in saying that Esperanto is strange as well. It is a cool language

[Gilthador]

I would say that would be Icelandic or English.

[The Archregimancy]

Also, bushmen aren't pygmies.

Correct.

I've gone hunting with the Efé subgroup of the BaMbuti pygmies in the Ituri rainforest of the Congo (true story), and they are definitely not bushmen.

[Tokos]

Pygmies are kind of just miniature Black people, Bushmen are an entirely different race predating, if I remember correctly, the arrival of Black people in southern Africa.

[Kursas Karaliste]

No other language has so many swear words. Russian has more ugly, but Finnish has more swear, serious swear words. Most known is "Perkele!"

Russian/Slavic and Semitic languages must be some of the most ugliest languages I've ever heard. It's as if they're talking with their intestines and their tongue is glued to the roof of the mouth. Norwegian/Danish also sounds a bit like vomiting.

As for Finnish swear words - Perkele was stolen from the Balts. It's derived from the word Pērkons.

Un vispār man liekas, ka latvju valoda arī ir visai savdabīga, lai gan diez vai kāds no tejienes tumsoņām būs to dzirdējis. Pareizi?

[Johz]

Also, bushmen aren't pygmies.

Correct.

I've gone hunting with the Efé subgroup of the BaMbuti pygmies in the Ituri rainforest of the Congo (true story), and they are definitely not bushmen.

Is that what one does as an archeology professor? If so, sign me up...

[Johz]

- duplicate post -

[Vragovia]

Finnish, Hungarian and Turkish are weird, I have to admit. But their predecessor Sumerian , of which we know only half or maybe even less is the strangest, most beautiful and definitely most difficult from my perspective (my native language is Macedonian and I'm really familiar only with French, English and Latin). So if you ask me, those black headed guys and galls are the champions in terms of language beauty. You could probably find weirder and more difficult ones but none sounds so good, to me at least.

[Kursas Karaliste]

But their predecessor Sumerian

Pure pseudoscience.

Next.

[Risottia]

Finnish, Hungarian and Turkish are weird, I have to admit. But their predecessor Sumerian , of which we know only half or maybe even less is the strangest, most beautiful and definitely most difficult from my perspective (my native language is Macedonian and I'm really familiar only with French, English and Latin). So if you ask me, those black headed guys and galls are the champions in terms of language beauty. You could probably find weirder and more difficult ones but none sounds so good, to me at least.

I was wondering, how much difference is there between Macedonian and Bulgarian? Is it a French-vs-Italian sort of difference (that is, two different languages but clearly stemming from the very same one), a Slovak-vs-Czech difference (that is two local variants of a language, different but mutually intelligible), or a Croatian-vs-Serbian difference (two dialects of the same language, almost undistinguishable to a foreigner)?

[Georgism]

Is that what one does as an archeology professor? If so, sign me up...

Nah, tha's just his hobbies. For work he fights Nazis and Soviets for extremely rare artifacts.

[Johz]

Is that what one does as an archeology professor? If so, sign me up...

Nah, tha's just his hobbies. For work he fights Nazis and Soviets for extremely rare artifacts.

And Soviets. They were Soviet forces in the later films.

EDIT: That might rank as one of the stupidist things I've ever ever said.

[Azzers]

Arabic, 28 variations of any given verb depending on time, gender, number and whether the verb is active or passive. That and the fact that the dictionary doesn't work through alphabetised checking but rather through finding root words.