The 50 Weirdest Languages (On the planet and beyond!)

The weirdest languages on the planet and beyond 50% SPACE, SCIENCE & SCIENCE FICTION KLINGON 25 estimated fluent speakers The complete works of Shakespeare have been translated into Klingon Qapla'! TAMARIAN • First spoken in Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1992 • The Tamarians speak entirely in metaphors Shooflee! SIMLISH Initially invented as gibberish, fans of The Sims managed to translate it • Pop band The Ting Tings recorded a song written in Simlish HUTTESE • First heard in Return of the Jedi, spoken by the Jabba the Hutt • Huttese has no words for 'Please' or 'Thank You' ALIENESE Alien language used in comedy sci-fi cartoon series Futurama • It uses symbols to substitute letters of the alphabet, as a hidden message to fans Oel ngati kameie NA'VI • 1,500 words created by linguist Paul Frommer especially for Avatar There are now translations of the English - Na'Vi dictionary in 8 other languages HTML • Developed by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, in 1991 • Berners-Lee charged no royalties for HTML and made no money directly ROBOT INTERACTION LANGUAGE from it Designed for human-robot interaction in 2010 • Its vocabulary was developed by an algorithm designed to generate the least amount of confusion between words BASIC • BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of programming languages from the 70s and 80s • Bill Gates placed a secret 'easter egg' into a Commodore BASIC computer to flash 'Microsoft!" when you type a certain code NORTHERN HEMISPHERE ESPERANTO Created in 1887 as a neutral international language 2 million estimated speakers – the most widely spoken 'invented' language in the СНОСТАW world • 10,000 estimated Native American speakers, mostly in Oklahoma • Dissimilar from almost all other languages, despite being based on the English-style Roman alphabet NENETS • 22,000 speakers recorded at the last census • The word 'parka' comes from this tribal language from northern Russia YUPIK Fewer than 15,000 speakers • From Siberia and Alaska, Yupik is polysynthetic – each word is effectively a complex sentence PAWNEE Spoken by Native Americans in Nebraska • The alphabet contains just 9 consonants and 8 vowels KOREAN •A language isolate, meaning it has no historical relationship with any other language • The written language was based on Chinese lettering; a new system was devised in the 15th century and only recently adopted ARCHI 1,500,000 conjugations of many verbs make Archi a favourite among grammar fans • Spoken in Russia on the edge of the Caspian sea ENGLISH BASQUE One of the most spoken languages... ...but also one of the hardest to 600,000+ speakers in Europe • Shares hardly any characteristics with its language neighbours learn WELSH CORNISH 500,000 speakers in Wales 25,000 speakers in... Argentina • Ancient Celtic language spoken by people in SW England • Considered extinct, but recently resuscitated EQUATOR TAUSHIRO A 'language isolate', sharing few or no characteristics with other PIRAHA • Just 10 phonemes, 0 words for languages Now thought to be extinct colours • Spoken by an indigenous Brazilian tribe who often communicate with simple hums or whistles SENTINELESE Little is known about Sentinelese KAIXANA • Spoken by a pre-historic tribe on an Indonesian island untouched by civilisation 1 estimated fluent speaker Once spoken in a tiny Brazilian village, but looks doomed to extinction ROTOKAS 12 letters in its alphabet and 0 nasal sounds CHALCATONGО МХТЕС • Spoken in Papua New Guinea 6,000 speakers in a Mexican village The 'weirdest' outlier language, sharing very little with any other language ONGOTTA •6 estimated native speakers, all elderly, plus 1 Ethiopian professor • Found in Ethiopia TELUGU This Indian language is agglutinative Words are formed by joining morphemes together LAAL • 700 speakers in a village in Chad • An 'unclassified' language, meaning linguists have not established its history CHAMICURO Just 8 native speakers • Exists in Peru in a community of no more than 20 SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE URA Just a few elderly speakers • Found in the Pacific island of Erromango NJEREP 4 people still speak fragments of the language • From Nigeria but no longer spoken on a regular basis KAURNA An Australian Aboriginal language Almost ceased to exist in the late 19th century, only to be revived in the 1990s AFRIKAANS 23 million estimated speakers • Despite shared heritage, Dutch and Afrikaan speakers will generally not understand one another KHOSIAN One of the most prominent families of languages in southern Africa • Features distinctive click sounds as phonemes MAORI LEMERIG 4% of New Zealand's population speak Maori fluently • Almost disappeared under fierce colonial rule in New Zealand, but has enjoyed a 2 known speakers Lemerig is only spoken on the island of Vanua Lava, 1,000 miles east of Australia recent revival TAA ХHOSA Technically part of the Khosian family, Taa is a unique language with a staggering number of phonemes • 164 consonants, of which 111 are click •7 million+ speakers •A 'click' language; a single word can have multiple meanings depending on the tone, pitch and click sounds PITJANTJATJARA • Found in central Australia An Aboriginal language notable for its fantastic name FANTASY LANDS PARSELTONGUE • Spoken by serpents and Parselmouths in the Harry Potter series • Sounds like hissing to non-speakers NEWSPEAK From George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 • Created by the totalitarian government to limit free thought DOTHRAKI 3,000+ words created for Game of Thrones • 142 newborn girls in the US were named 'Khaleesi', the Dothraki name for a Queen, in 2012 Dothras chek! SINDARIN Mîbo orch 25,000 words in vocabulary Sindarin is the most common language used by the Elvish race in The Lord of the Rings MANGANI • Grunt and growl language spoken by apes in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels 'Tarzan' is the Mangani word for 'white skin' GELFLING Spoken by elf-like beings found in the world of Thra, in the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal • Written in complex hieroglyphs only male Gelflings can read QWGHLMIAN Binary-style language almost impossible to pronounce or learn • From Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon novel OLD TONGUE From Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy series of books Supposedly dead May may! AKLO 'Secret' occult language invented by author Arthur Machen in 1899 Used in a number of fantasy writers' work, including HP Lovecraft and Alan Moore FURBISH Translatable language spoken by the furry electronic toy popular in the late 90s Each toy picks up English words and phrases SOURCES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_language http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/08/top-ten-geekiest-constructe-languages/ http://www.sparknotes.com/mindhut/2013/01/02/top-5-made-up-languages-from-fantasy-and-sci-fi http://listverse.com/2009/03/22/10-fascinating-fictional-languages/ http://www.geekscape.net/top-10-fictional-languages-that-you-can-learn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Interaction_Language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dothraki_language http://sindarinlessons.weebly.com/ http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Parseltongue http://listverse.com/2013/04/07/10-bizarre-languages-still-spoken-around-the-world/ http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-rarest-languages.php#_/term/worlds%20strangest%20languages PRODUCED BY CE E·S.L LANGUAGE STUDIES ABROAD