Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

General discussion about learning languages
nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby nooj » Thu Dec 14, 2017 11:34 am

All the languages you are learning, you have to abandon for let's say 5 years. You have to replace them with languages that have less than 2 million speakers. What language(s) do you pick?

So for example, I'm learning right now Catalan and Basque. I would have to abandon Catalan and keep going with Basque, because it is under the 2 million marker. Unfortunately I couldn't choose Galician, which has half a million more than allowed, so I would pick Scottish Gaelic. Scotland and Spain are quite close by plane, so it would still be plausible to get some immersion in both countries if I lived in one of them.
Last edited by nooj on Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
2 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

User avatar
basica
Orange Belt
Posts: 221
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:07 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), Serbian (A2ish)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?&t=7335
x 412

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby basica » Thu Dec 14, 2017 11:43 am

Esperanto, Ido & Interlingua 8-)
3 x
Glossika Fluency 1: 16 / 104

Learning or already speak Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian? Join us here! :)

DaveBee
Blue Belt
Posts: 952
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:49 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (native). French (studying).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7466
x 1386

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby DaveBee » Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:03 pm

Welsh.
1 x

Speakeasy
x 7658

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:06 pm

English, because I can see through the billionaire's self-interested and thinly-concealed attempts at marginalizing me. I want to learn his language so that I can replace him.

IMAGE
Daddy Warbucks
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
2 x

User avatar
smallwhite
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 6:55 am
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Native: Cantonese;
Good: English, French, Spanish, Italian;
Mediocre: Mandarin, German, Swedish, Dutch.
.
x 4876

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby smallwhite » Thu Dec 14, 2017 12:17 pm

What languages are there to choose from?
0 x
Dialang or it didn't happen.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby IronMike » Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:00 pm

I'd keep the Esperanto I'm already studying, despite what some say about the number of speakers.

I'd have to stop with Russian, but to keep to the Slavic family, I'd add Sorbian. If this exercise is a one-for-one switch with the languages I am actively working on now, then that's it: Esperanto and Sorbian.

But if we can add some...I already have many LCTLs on my dream list, and have studied a few through the years. So this task wouldn't be hard for me, except that I get paid extra money for my Russian proficiency, so I'd sooner or later lose some $$. But I could finally put some serious effort to revive my A2-ish Cornish, pick up Old English and Middle Egyptian for reading, learn some Nahuatl (ethnologue says fewer than 2 mil speakers at 1.7 mil), pull the Mari textbooks back out, finally work on Lakota or Mohawk or...wait, is this the wanderlust thread?
4 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
x 8029

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:06 pm

I am studying French and while I’m not currently learning Dutch, German nor Spanish, I have in the past and intend to do so again in future, along with perhaps Norwegian. So I’ll cheat and provide alternatives for all these languages.

Dutch —> Frisian
French —> Breton
German —> Luxembourgish
Spanish —> Basque
Norwegian —> Occitan (if the nbr of speakers is not too high, otherwise Francoprovençal)
2 x

Tillumadoguenirurm
Orange Belt
Posts: 193
Joined: Fri May 06, 2016 3:07 pm
Languages: English
x 235

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:07 pm

I'm already learning Basque and Irish, so I'm only changing my other 4 favourite languages.

Instead of English, Catalan, French and Spanish, I think I'd learn Gascon (an Occitan), Mauritian Creole, Walloon and maybe Luxembourgish or Welsh. Maybe.

2 million speakers is already a very small number, there is a whole bunch of languages around that might be considered small but still have over 2 million speakers. Why did you pick that number over another?
Last edited by Tillumadoguenirurm on Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
1 x

nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby nooj » Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:14 pm

smallwhite wrote:What languages are there to choose from?



I've looked and that information is surprisingly hard to come by. You get broad data, such as Ethnologue telling you that there are 307 languages with more than 1 million speakers, or that 956 languages have more than 100,000 speakers, but those are generalities.

Ethnologue more usefully gives a comparison of language families here.
0 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

User avatar
Xenops
Brown Belt
Posts: 1444
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:33 pm
Location: Boston
Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
On break: Japanese (approx. N4), Norwegian (A2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16797
x 3559
Contact:

Re: Replace all the languages you are learning with ones that have less than 2 million speakers

Postby Xenops » Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:58 pm

Can we pick dead languages? 8-)
3 x
Check out my comic at: https://atannan.com/


Return to “General Language Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Eternal Foreigner and 2 guests