Treacle Worshipper

I voted for Latin & Russian. I really enjoyed learning Latin, mainly because I am a linguistic pendant. It's like trying to put together an intricate puzzle. I was never fluent in it, but it helps hugely with seeing how the other romance languages work.

I've wanted to learn Russian for a long time, but I've never got round to it. I think it would be interesting.

My degree was in French and German, and I am currently learning Welsh. This is only to be recommended if you can laugh at a language, and yourself. It's what happens if you let the bards develop your language for several centuries. Half the "grammatical" rules are there "because it sounds better"
I'm really enjoying it.
TW

Giorgia

Hey, there, Doc!

If Koop or anyone else decides to learn Czech, it would get me of my ass! In other words, I'd finally stop threatening to find the time to learn a third language, and go for it!

I grew up in Wien, and the punch-line of an ethnic joke there was "there is no such thing as three Vienese: one is Hungarian, and one is a Czech." Before I heard the language spoken on TV here, I've always just loved the non-vowel nature of it (there was a plumbing contractor who's name has stuck in my mind all these years: "Prskawetz"). I've been in seventh heaven with all the Czechs in the NHL -- not just because they're so skilled -- it's so much fun to hear the announcers go to great lengths to properly pronouce names like "Hnlicka" and "Hrdina" (there's your "r"!). Needless to say, I'm absolutely tickled every time they show this skater's jersey: Satan. (For non-fans, it's pronounced "zha-tahn' " -- same sound as in ZhaZha Gabor.)

Godbert

yeah, czech is cool
It also features my favourite word for icecream: zmrzlina

copernicus

I've studied quite a few languages, so I have nothing in particular to recommend. What is it that you are looking for in a language? I have a soft spot for Breton, but that is really only because I love Brittany. The language itself isn't particularly useful, unless you want to make friends with Breton nationalists. Chinese (Mandarin) has the largest number of native speakers, but Spanish and Arabic are spoken in a great many different countries. Ancient Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit are historically important and have rich literatures. What kind of language are you shopping around for?

Gregg

Well, you shouldn't have to ask where the embassy is. Just follow the massive, violent protests.

Gregg

Gregg

...By the way, I think you should learn Fyarl. Oh, and how to shoot paralyzing snot from your nose.

Gregg

KoopaFanatic

Yeah, I think right now I'd feign having no knowledge of English at all. I can usually pull off convincing people I'm German if I limit myself to short sentences and noncommittal grunts.

"Like to crush. Crush now?" Hmm. Nah, I don't feel like snapping necks till everyone's dead. As for paralyzing mucus... well, when I have a sinus infection, I'm pretty well paralyzed. Does that count?

the_cave

I also voted for "other"--Mandarin Chinese would be my vote. It looks like you've picked Indonesian, which is another good choice, though I myself am for some reason not attracted to its syllable structure.

But I myself am attracted towards the languages that will be spoken most widely in the coming century (most of which, naturally, are already among the most widely spoken of this century.)

The most widely spoken languages of the next millenium will, I estimate, be:

Hindi (and Urdu--sort of the same language)
Chinese Mandarin
English
Spanish
Arabic
Indonesian
Portugese
Bengali

(and various other Indian and Chinese languages, including Cantonese and Tamil).

Japanse and Russian will remain fairly widely-spoken, but are declining in total number of speakers.

Some "up-and-coming" languages not yet mentioned are Farsi, Yoruba, Hausa, Amharic, and Vietnamese. Amharic has a written tradition, and its own alphabet. Farsi also has a notable literary tradition, as I'm sure Vietnamese does as well.

I myself would go for Chinese; clearly China will play an increasingly important role in world affairs, and has a vast literary and philosophical tradition, not to mention being one of the oldest civilizations in the world. I'm also partial towards langauges that make you think differently--the structure of Chinese differs from that of Indo-European languages in ways I find very interesting.

Hindi may in fact overtake Mandarin as the most widely-spoken lanugage, as India may overtake China in population by 2050. It's a lingua franca in India in the same way that Mandarin is in China. It has a very interesting (though also very complicated) script. And think of all the movies you could understand! English is also a lingua franca among the educated classes in India.

(Urdu is more or less "Muslim Hindi", with many Arabic loan words and a modified Arabic script. It could be a good way to get a taste of two cultures in one language.)

Finally, if you know German, you could pick up Plattdeutsch! This is the old language of "Low Germans", living north of the line between Berlin and Cologne, more or less. Related to Dutch (which is a form of Low German), it has fewer and fewer speakers (and most of them are either old or farmers ). There are some interesting websites about it if you look around. Or you could learn Letzebourgish, which is the German dialect of Luxemburg.

Good luck!

DMB

the_cave: you don't mention Schwyzert�tsch among your Plattdeutsch variants.

Friar Bellows

You could try the language of Yog-Sothoth, R�lyeh, and Nyarlathotep but you'd have to rip out your throat to get the pronunciation correct.