Most of the languages language learners choose to pick up have been around for a millennia, but there are some languages that formed more recently that you might find worth learning as well, particularly if you ever travel to regions where they are spoken.
With English increasingly becoming an international powerhouse, it may come as some surprise that there are still new languages coming to fruition ¾ some as recently as 1980. Here are some languages you can learn if you want to be a linguistic trend setter (although you probably won’t find most of them on language learning apps any time soon).
Lingala ( ≈ 200 years old)
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo
Total Number of Speakers: 60-65 million
This language native to the Congo is an important lingua franca, but unlike the rest of the languages on the list, this one isn’t a European language or a creole based on one.
Instead it is based off of Bangi, an important indigenous trade language used along the Congo River. When the Belgian missionaries arrived, they needed a language to effectively communicate with all people in the region. They chose Bangi which eventually evolved into Lingala as they spread and utilized it during the early 20th century.
Today Lingala is used in news, education and everyday life with 25-30 million native speakers and another 30 million second language speakers. That makes it the second most spoken language in the country next to French.
Learning Lingala could definitely be useful if you plan on visiting the Congo, and you would certainly impress quite a few people.
Tok Pisin ( ≈ 150 years old)
Language family: English Creole
Total Number of Speakers: 5-6 million
Tok Pisin is spoken in New Guinea and came about through contact between European settlers and local populations. Due to the some 900 different languages spoken in Papa New Guinea, it wasn’t possible for the settlers to learn all of the native languages. Instead, they used a simplified English that eventually became its own language and the lingua franca that Melanesians use to communicate with each other today.
While this language is sometimes referred to as New Guinea Pidgin or just Pidgin, it is no longer technically a pidgin as it has over a hundred thousand native speakers. Once a pidgin has a generation of first language speakers, it is then referred to as a creole.
Tok Pisin is used in written communication as well and there is even a Tok Pisin translation of the Bible. Because the language takes much of its vocabulary from English, you might find that you can make out the meaning of some of it.
Afrikaans (officially 99 years old)
Language Family: Germanic
Total Number of Speakers: 17 million
Out of all of the languages on the list, learning this language is probably the most useful due to its official status.
When the Dutch settled the southern tip of the African continent in the 17th century, they brought their language with them. In fact, if you’ve been learning Dutch, you might be surprised that you understand quite a bit of Afrikaans due to the high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages.
Over time, it began to evolve and by the 1700’s it was beginning to become distinct from the process of natural language change and influence from local languages. In 1925, it was finally recognized as a distinct language.
Today, it is a lingua franca in South Africa and one of the many official languages. In recent years, it has lost some of its status with the end of the apartheid. Schools are now using English as the language of instruction more and more, English is also being favored in official communication and in academia Still, it’s far from endangered with around 13% of the South African population speaking the language as a first language behind Zulu and Xhosa.
Singlish ( ≈ 60 years old)
Language family: English Creole
Total Number of Speakers: 2-3 million
Another English-based creole on the list, Singlish developed from a similar situation to Tok Pisin in that speakers of multiple languages (Malay, Tamil, Hindi and the Chinese languages of Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew) developed a way in which they could communicate efficiently.
In the 1960’s, After Singapore gained its independence, the government began promoting English education to be competitive on the world stage. However, that decision had an unintended effect and due to the linguistic diversity of the country, locals infused English with the grammar and vocabulary of the other languages in the new country.
Not everyone in the country is happy with the language’s development with the government even starting campaign called the Speak Good English Movement, which tries to highlight the importance of speaking a standard English that can be understood by all. Despite those efforts, Singlish appears to be here to stay.
You probably won’t need to learn Singlish if you move to Singapore, but making the effort is sure to gain you the respect of the locals.
Light Warlpiri (≈ 40 years old)
Language family: Kriol-Walpiri (mixed)
Total Number of Speakers: 350
The last language on this list is the youngest and also has the fewest speakers. This mixed Australian language came about in the 1980’s and has only 350 native speakers.The theory goes that Adults spoke to aboriginal children using both creole and English. People in Lajamanu had been code switching between English and Creole for some time, however the generation born in the 70’s and 80’s took it a step further. The children then created a system based on the two languages that became a language of its own. Now those adults are teaching their children, so who knows? Maybe the language will be growing.
Conclusion
With the exception of Afrikaans, you may need to do some digging for materials if you want to master any of these fledgling tongues.
Doing so would likely to prompt a lot of questions from native speakers and probably some admiration too. At least you’ll have stock answers ready for the first 5 minutes conversations.
Still, if you want to go the more traditional route by learning one of the more practical languages, nobody will blame you. You can choose from plenty of options with Busuu that are bound to open up a world of opportunities for you!