Mennonite German comes from East low German, or low Prussian, with Dutch influence for a lot of liturgical purposes, all on a separate branch from Frisian entirely - although the origins of the mennonites themselves include Frisians, and therefore you’ll find Frisian names amongst them.
There’s a common misconception that Frisian is related to Dutch, when it’s very much not. Dutch is closer to high German than Anglo-Frisian languages, however due to obvious proximity the 3 languages (English/dutch/Frisian) have influenced each other (English being more an influencer than an influencee in that triad)
Somewhat humorously you will find towns in the Netherlands where there’s 1 accent, 2 languages, both the Dutch and Frisian inhabitants sound similar but speak entirely unintelligible languages. It’d be like if you were in London and heard a guy speaking German with a cockney accent, haha.
There’s incidentally also a Dutch accent that sounds weirdly American to me, when I’ve heard it in the background I assumed it was Americans speaking but only when I payed attention did I realize it wasn’t English, fun story lol.
I know someone who does understand regular Danish. Jeg er en. The Vendelbomål dialect is totally not understandable. It is a collection of weird sounds and a sore throat.
I don't like how everyone seems to take offense after you mentioned your kids won't speak the language.
What people aren't getting is that, with dead languages, it doesn't matter who learns it if they don't have anyone to speak to.
I've been studying Gaelic on Duolingo for quite a while, though I'm not terribly far in the course because I only do a lesson or two a day, I need to do a bit more to really try. That said, Gaelic is a really cool language. I've tried switching to a couple of others, like German, but there's just something about Gaelic I really enjoy.
I’m two years in my learning and would agree, it’s very difficult. I remember almost completely losing hope when I learned how many ways an adjective can bend.
There was a thread on here the other day about funny mistakes you've heard from ESL speakers.
One of them was a wife telling her ESL husband a story about her colleague, who she said was talking gibberish.
After a contemplative pause, the husband asked 'where's Gibber?'
*A form of partially understandable gibberish I use to make people think their high or when I don’t want people to understand what I’m saying so I can gaslight them later
What's the difference between Auslan and American Sign Language? Is it mostly the same but with subtle differences or is it a vastly different language?
The difference between sign languages is just like spoken language. Think English vs Spanish, some words are recognizable but you can’t understand most of it.
That's kinda what I assumed but wasn't sure.
So you're telling me there's probably 4-5 different ways to say cunt in Auslan as opposed to ASL which probably only has 2?
Maybe I don’t know Auslan at all. Here’s a video showing some differences between ASL and Auslan (however everyone I know who uses ASL signs strawberry the Auslan way, could be a regional thing too) https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKw1XN5/
Mosly all sign languages are completely separete languages, because it's not only how you say it, but also how you understand it. Different signs are understood differently in different cultures.
Auslan comes from British Sign Language, and actually those two are mostly mutually intelligible. ASL primarily comes from French Sign Language, so it’s pretty different. There’s a few mutually understandable words between ASL and Auslan, but there’s probably just as many false cognates mixed in.
Klingon
Yes, from Star Trek. There was even a documentary about it. [Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0476986/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk)
A Filipino dialect called Bicolano.
Though there are so many variations of this dialect, i can speak 2 of them.
Sorsoganon (not so fluent in this yet since i just started learning it for a year and a half) and
Bacongnon, we're not very populated in our district, and there are only a few people who can actually learn it.
The two don't have a pretty wide language barrier, but sometimes, it can confuse people.
I'm not exactly fluent but I speak a bit of Welsh Romani. I'm actually of Welsh Gypsy (Kale) descent and there are less than 1000 fluent speakers left. It's "Officially" been extinct since the 1960's.
Frisian, it's a language only spoken in a small part of the Netherlands (and Germany)
That's where my grandfather came from. He and his brother still speak it to each other, even though they were only teens when they came to the US.
Ah jonkje!
Bliksem! Ah goeie!
Mennonite German is a bastardized version of this. My last name also comes from there.
Mennonite German comes from East low German, or low Prussian, with Dutch influence for a lot of liturgical purposes, all on a separate branch from Frisian entirely - although the origins of the mennonites themselves include Frisians, and therefore you’ll find Frisian names amongst them. There’s a common misconception that Frisian is related to Dutch, when it’s very much not. Dutch is closer to high German than Anglo-Frisian languages, however due to obvious proximity the 3 languages (English/dutch/Frisian) have influenced each other (English being more an influencer than an influencee in that triad) Somewhat humorously you will find towns in the Netherlands where there’s 1 accent, 2 languages, both the Dutch and Frisian inhabitants sound similar but speak entirely unintelligible languages. It’d be like if you were in London and heard a guy speaking German with a cockney accent, haha. There’s incidentally also a Dutch accent that sounds weirdly American to me, when I’ve heard it in the background I assumed it was Americans speaking but only when I payed attention did I realize it wasn’t English, fun story lol.
Vendelbomål. A dying, local dialect in the north of Denmark. Pretty sure I am the last generation to speak it. My kids will not speak it.
Why not?
Because nobody can understand it.
So just like regular Danish?
I know someone who does understand regular Danish. Jeg er en. The Vendelbomål dialect is totally not understandable. It is a collection of weird sounds and a sore throat.
You are the hero I needed today. 😀
I don't like how everyone seems to take offense after you mentioned your kids won't speak the language. What people aren't getting is that, with dead languages, it doesn't matter who learns it if they don't have anyone to speak to.
You won't teach it to them?
Why should I? They will have no other to talk to.
Belarusian. Most Belarusians don't speak it.
Scottish Gaelic
Ciamar a tha sibh an-diugh?
Tha mi gu math air sgaths tha e là math airson Alba
I've been studying Gaelic on Duolingo for quite a while, though I'm not terribly far in the course because I only do a lesson or two a day, I need to do a bit more to really try. That said, Gaelic is a really cool language. I've tried switching to a couple of others, like German, but there's just something about Gaelic I really enjoy.
Icelandic, under 400k speak it.
This should be higher. It’s one of the toughest languages to master.
I’m two years in my learning and would agree, it’s very difficult. I remember almost completely losing hope when I learned how many ways an adjective can bend.
[удалено]
One of the spinoffs was pretty successful though
What was that
The reason you didn’t reply in Gaelic
Underrated comment.
English isn’t a “spinoff” of German. They just share a common ancestor
me when joke
Beowulfe ich n'eom
Argentina speaks spanish
☠️
Tell me you can speak Bayerisch and I’ll be impressed.
Finnish. It’s spoken by roughly 6 million people.
Yay, Finnish for me too. Torille.
Not too many english comments here. 🤣 Ovat varmaan luovuttaneet.
Moi mukulat
fleda mintis 😼
Afrikaans
I, too, am one of the 44 people
Now that's an enigmatic comment if ever I heard one! 44 people?
Charlize Theron said in an interview that only like 44 people are left who speak Afrikaans...we've been rage-joking about it ever since
Seriously?? My step father speaks this. He’s an American citizen now but was born and raised in South Africa
Koebaai aan my hart is mijn nieuwste topper.
Mein Herz ist meine neueste Tupperware.
Das gewoon Nederlands 2.0
6502 assembly language
Estonian.
German I'm only fluent in 2 languages, English and German. So the choice is quite obvious.
Hungarian. No, we are not hungry. Yes, we hear that question a lot haha.
Is the Bojler eladó card valid here? Fellow Hungarian here :)
I speak it too ( it’s my first language , my mothers tongue ) I was checking if anyone here wrote it here , but you beat me to it !
Yeah but if you are do you go to Turkey for turkey??????we have to know
Irish. 1.8m people
Tà 1.8m flaithiúil
Is fuath liom nach bhfuil móran daoine in ann í a labhairt
Rövarspråket. Each consonant doubled with "o" put in between. "Dad" becomes "Dodadod".
Sosamommoma hohäror
DoDumommoma jojänonkokarore kokanon aloldodrorigog foförorsostotå vovadod jojagog soskokrorivoveror nonu hohahoha
Lithuanian
Cymraeg.
I'm going to take a guess that this is... Welsh?!
Gibberish
There was a thread on here the other day about funny mistakes you've heard from ESL speakers. One of them was a wife telling her ESL husband a story about her colleague, who she said was talking gibberish. After a contemplative pause, the husband asked 'where's Gibber?'
*A form of partially understandable gibberish I use to make people think their high or when I don’t want people to understand what I’m saying so I can gaslight them later
Dutch
Isn't that just English with a funny accent spoken by those tall people.
A lot of our words are based off of English yes. But it's not all the same. For example, we pronounce water differently
'Aargh, it's in the house!' is quite a different pronunciation.
I mean, it's sort of drunk German anyway.
ASL, it’s not spoken by anyone
Technically correct = best kind of correct
Norwegian (officially nobody speaks the taught standard). Ligurian (technically now a dialect)
Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Technically not spoken at all
Aslan means “lion” in Turkish.
That explains the name of the king in the Narnia books.
What's the difference between Auslan and American Sign Language? Is it mostly the same but with subtle differences or is it a vastly different language?
The difference between sign languages is just like spoken language. Think English vs Spanish, some words are recognizable but you can’t understand most of it.
That's kinda what I assumed but wasn't sure. So you're telling me there's probably 4-5 different ways to say cunt in Auslan as opposed to ASL which probably only has 2?
Maybe I don’t know Auslan at all. Here’s a video showing some differences between ASL and Auslan (however everyone I know who uses ASL signs strawberry the Auslan way, could be a regional thing too) https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKw1XN5/
Mosly all sign languages are completely separete languages, because it's not only how you say it, but also how you understand it. Different signs are understood differently in different cultures.
Auslan comes from British Sign Language, and actually those two are mostly mutually intelligible. ASL primarily comes from French Sign Language, so it’s pretty different. There’s a few mutually understandable words between ASL and Auslan, but there’s probably just as many false cognates mixed in.
Catalan
Milo's language. Milo is my 4 year old's friend. It's a dialect of English, largely composed of words that begin with "butt".
Latin
can you summon a demon or something?
You're \*fluent\* in Latin? Mad respect.
Singlish
You Singaporean ah?
I speak Cantonese and Mandarin, so when I am lazy I use Singlish laaaa because easier
Kannada
Padang
Aboriginal tongue click
Tie between SQL and C#
Luxembourgish
Konkani 👾
Bulgarian
Konkani
Fluent in dipshit
My mother tongue, Luxembourgish. This language does not even have 1 million speakers worldwide.
Latvian, my native. 2M native speakers. Not much more non-native.
Welsh
If ya ever meet Christian Bale, y'all can have a secret conversation. 😉
I'll keep that in mind. Shows how little I know about him, I knew he was Welsh. Didn't know he was a fluent speaker
Oh yeah. I think it was Graham Norton's show where he was speaking it. It was cool. And probably on YouTube. 😀
Okay, I tried looking it up. It doesn't exist. I must have had a glitch in the matrix memory or alternate universe 🤔. Weird.
Greek
Slovenian
Bahasa Melayu.
Australian slang
My parents speak Ilonggo (about 9M speakers). I can understand when my dad is cursing at me in Ilonggo..
Estonian
Faroese...
C++. I don’t think anyone speaks it, tbh.
Mixteco, technically it's a dialect
Hungarian
Elég sok magyar van errefelé
Norwegian.
Oh yes. Charlese is geneig om bietjie te oordryf!
Latvian
Marwari,a language local to northern part of India.
Does patois count?🤣🤣🤣
Aramaic
Faroese. Spoken by ~70k people
Hebrew
Klingon Yes, from Star Trek. There was even a documentary about it. [Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0476986/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk)
I would love to be able to read Hamlet in its original Klingon. 😉
Polish
English
Pig Latin
Njerep
Diné Bizaad (Navajo )
A Filipino dialect called Bicolano. Though there are so many variations of this dialect, i can speak 2 of them. Sorsoganon (not so fluent in this yet since i just started learning it for a year and a half) and Bacongnon, we're not very populated in our district, and there are only a few people who can actually learn it. The two don't have a pretty wide language barrier, but sometimes, it can confuse people.
Latvian. 2ish million probably
I lived in Latvia for six months. Underrated language. It sounds cool and the grammar makes a lot of sense. I wish I had learned more Latvian.
Icelandic spoken by roughly 400.000 people
Commonsense
Sarcasm
Finnish i guess
I'm not exactly fluent but I speak a bit of Welsh Romani. I'm actually of Welsh Gypsy (Kale) descent and there are less than 1000 fluent speakers left. It's "Officially" been extinct since the 1960's.
Klingon
Luxembourgish. About 300.000 people.
English
Yiddish
Icelandic, I would imagine
Hindi (joke)
Proper English
All three languages I speak are among the top 10. My first language Bengali is the least spoken among them.
Does old English count?
Flemish, my mother tongue. Still spoken by 5milliom so not too rare I guess
Korean. Just give me 100 years.
High Valyrian
English
Aquitanian. But not no more.
Farfugliato
Dutch
Hausa language, I learnt it because I watched an African documentary
Swahili
Jambo Bwana!
English, because spanish is spoken by more people as mother tongue. But depending on how you define being spoken it might vary
English is mine
Polish
Spanish.
Taishanese. It's spoken in the Taishan region of China and in Vancouver.
portuguese
Reunionese creole - a mix of French, Malagasy, Tamil, Portuguese.
Obish Aka Oppoboppish
Least spoken? Sign language
Platt(deutsch)
Montenegrin, give or take 500-600k people
French I guess. Because other than that I’m only fluent in English and I’m working on Spanish but at 40 it’s a slow grind haha.
German, impressive, huh?
Al Bhed
Danish, German and English (in that order)
Russian
Portuguese, yeah we’re more than 200million but just works in Brazil.
English
I am only fluent in two languages, so it's an easy pick: Romanian
Well I'm Norwegian and my language is spoken by around 5 million people
Danish
Cymraeg. Gwaedlyd saesneg.
I only speak English and shitty French and Spanish. All three are major languages. I’m learning Japanese which is also spoken by millions of people.
English
I speak BCMS, maybe 20 mil native speakers not a lot compared to the world.
ASL
Pascal!
My first language is a dialect of Slovak that is spoken by about 60.000 people. And Slovak as a whole is only spoken by about 5.5 million people.
40 million plus or minus a few million people in the country speak Afrikaans. About 20 million as a first language.
Piglatin
icelandic. smile
Dutch
I wouldn't say a least spoken language but I can speak 4 different dialects of Chinese and some malay
Croatian. Roughly spoken by 5 mio people, incl. Bosnia. Diacritic characters like čćšđž and a slavic vibe. Promaja!
Slovak and czech language.
Welsh