Adrianslont wrote:basica wrote:Since no one took my bait
, I'll give a bit more of a serious answer
I've found Native American languages to be really interesting. To my ears they sound so bizarre. Sure, there are languages from other regions that also fit the "sound bizarre" bill, but I think the reason for my attraction is from the Mel Gibson film Apocalypto so
Modern Mayan would probably be one of them.
I've also got a vague interest in Scandinavian languages. I don't think I'll ever learn one, but if I were paid to do so and the bigger ones were out of the question (and they are according to these rules) I would pick
Icelandic. It's reputation of being a fossilized language if you will are intriguing to say the least.
And, lists always look better in 3s, so I'll add one more
I'd say
Maori would be another language. I know it'd probably make more sense to learn an Aboriginal language since I'm in Australia, but I encounter more Maoris than Aboriginals (significantly more in fact), even in the small city I live in now (I could probably count on one hand, maybe two how many Aboriginal people I've seen in person, ever) so it'd be more useful and it'd probably give me a helping hand with Tongan and some other Polynesian languages I'd likely encounter here.
I’m Australian, too and you’ve made me curious about where you live and how few indigenous Australians you have come across and yet meet Maori. The only answer I can come up with is a town other than Hobart in Tasmania.
Another aussie here,
I think your guestimation could be on the money. I live not far from Australia’s second biggest city and I don’t often come across aboriginals, probably more Maori’s as well, for me.
Currently I’m staying a week or so in the town/small city I grew up in, visiting family (a little further from
that second biggest city. There is a sizeable aboriginal population here, but I have never (that I can recall) heard an aboriginal language spoken in this town. Still, I’m rarely on the other side of this town, where the majority of the aboriginal population lives, but I have crossed paths with them a good number of times when I was younger and I would hypothesize that considerably less than 1% of the aboriginal population of this town would speak an aboriginal language with fluidity and spontaneity (lets lower the bar and call it B1 as per CERF). I would even go as far to say there wouldbe none, zero.
Australian aboriginal languages vary wildly, are dying rapidly, have practically zero government support, have dwindling numbers of native speakers who would be very difficult to locate let alone both parties agreeing on learning/teaching the language for a number of sensitive reasons, and other educational, literary, audio resources are miniscule in number, or more than likely non-existent.
Maori is a unified language nowadays with a vastly better situation with relation to everything mentioned in the above paragraph with respect to aboriginal languages.
I know I’m not necessarily teaching fellow aussies and some other folk anything new here with my words above, but some details on the plight of aboriginal languages are nevertheless still interesting to raise within the context of choosing minority languages which one might learn.
Edit: In my work as a nurse I have in the last couple of years come across a handful of aboriginals imprisoned at the time of our meeting (btw there are more Maoris there too at that one particular prison from my observations). I have had a couple of lengthy conversations on the topic of their ancestral languages and whether they speak an/their traditional aboriginal language themselves. The answer is no even for one man who identified strongly with his culture and heritage.
On the contrary I would be almost certain that in the far north and centre of Australia it would be easier to locate and considerably more common to hear aboriginal languages depending on where exactly we are considering, but again still frought with massive challenges were an outsider wanting to learn one of these languages.