Does anyone know a very small language - fewer than 100,000 speakers?

Question

I speak kemi -under 2000 speakers. A friend from the Caucasus taught it to me

Answer 1

Hawaiian

Answer 2

There are many many languages with less than 100.000speakers as reference to the ethnologue site will show. Off hand I can think of Irish (a lot of people say in the census they can speak it when they really can't much but have learnt it at school) Sanscrit (I believe about ten peoople always say it's their native language in the Indian Linguistic Census although actually it died out 2000 years ago or more.) Romansch in Switzerland. It's an official language but a lot less than 100000 speak it I believe. What about Ik or Teuso, the language of a few tribesmen in Uganda written about by Colin Turnbull. Ainu, spoken still maybe by one or two people in northern Japan and adjacent Russia. Kemi doesn't seem to be listed in ethnologue.

Answer 3

Gaelic has hardly any speakers. I dont know exact numbers though. Latha math dhuibh uile. - Good day to you all.
De man a tha shiubh? - How are you? (Isle if Lewis dialect)

Gaelic is a Celtic language. More closely related to Irish and Manx than to Welsh or Cornish. Contrary to popular opinion, it is very much alive.

Most place names in Scotland (even further south where most people seem to think Gaelic never existed) have Gaelic roots. A whole pile of people were evicted from their homes in the Highlands and bundled on to ships pointed in the direction of New Zeland, Australia, America and Canada. Because of this, these countries also have many Gaelic place names and Gaelic speakers.

Gaelic is a fantastic language and I encourage anybody to learn it.
Suas leis a Ghaidhlig!

Answer 4

Nauruan. It has about 7,000 speakers. Nauru is the world's smallest island nation (it's in the Pacific), its size is just 21 sq kms, and it's the only republic without a capital. Bizarrely it was once a German colony. It used to have the world's highest per capita income (from the purest phosphate anywhere on the planet). Now that the phosphate has all been mined, it relies heavily on aid from Australia, and has been obliged to accept on its territory a detention centre for asylum seekers wishing to enter Australia.

So I put forward Nauruan as an interesting language, and possibly the only language name that is palindromic (reading the same backwards as forwards)

Answer 5

Frisian (not cow language)

The genuine language of East Frisia was Frisian which now is almost extinct, largely replaced by East Frisian Low Saxon. Original East Frisian survived somewhat longer in several remote places as for example in the islands, such as Wangerooge. Today a modern variant of East Frisian can be found in the Saterland, a district near East Frisia. In former times people from East Frisia who left their homes under pressure had settled in that remote area surrounded by moors and kept their inherited language alive. This language which forms the smallest language-island in Europe is called Saterland Frisian or, by its own name, Seeltersk. It is spoken by about 1000 people.

East Frisian Low Saxon (or Eastern Friesland Low Saxon, as some people prefer to say for a better distinction from East Frisian, which is Frisian but not a Low German) is a variant of Low German with many of its own features due to the Frisian substrate and some other influences originating in the varied history of East Frisia.

In modern Germany, East Frisians in general are the traditional butt of ethnic jokes. This is mainly the case in the North; in the South, similar jokes are told about Austrians.

Answer 6

Basque probably has less than 100,000 speakers - it is a neanderthal root language spoken in northern Spain, which has no similarity to any other living language.

Answer 7

Manx is the native language of the isle of man and has very few speakers , i would guess less than 10 .

Answer 8

yes the language my twins used to speak to each other in when they were tiny some times they still talk in it when they don't want anyone to know what they re saying 2 speakers

Answer 9

Yeah, Hufsdenno.

Wee tiny Island of the coast of Rathlin Island in Ireland.

Answer 10

Yes
My school seems to have its own launguage compared to the rest of the worl
So
hreodlian
with 1500 speakers :P