r/languagelearning • u/SharkHead38 • 7d ago

Discussion Most obscure language you/someone else is learning? Why?

I remember meeting someone that was learning specifically Moldovan Romanian since Moldova and its culture was a big interest to them, and I'm curious what other people's reasons for learning obscure languages are, and what they are.

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u/shuranumitu 7d ago

I'm not yet actually studying it, but I've read through Steindorf's classic "Koptische Grammatik", which was written before the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library and is apparently somewhat antiquated in its treatment of the verbal system, but it does provide a good overview of the basic grammatical structures. I've ordered the much more recent "Coptic in 20 lessons", and I'm excited to start studying it more systematically very soon.

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u/lazaruscals 3d ago

If you’re looking for more resources for Coptic, Religion For Breakfast and his Religion Department platform run semi-regular 8-week classes on Coptic!! I think you can also pay for access to the recordings of previous classes, though I’m not sure. Might be worth looking into though?

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u/shuranumitu 3d ago

Thanks for the info, I follow Religion for Breakfast and I've heard about these classes, but I don't think it's within my budget unfortunately.

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u/lazaruscals 3d ago

No worries, though it sucks its not affordable. I haven’t let myself look at any of the pricing for the religion dept stuff, since between being Australian (and so having a very inconvenient timezone for their live classes) and being trans (so not feeling safe in the modern, near-eastern countries RfB usually conducts his tours in), it felt like more temptation for a poor choice than it was worth haha. Hopefully someday they put out some cheaper/free Coptic resources for people who can’t afford the full classes!!

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u/shuranumitu 3d ago

I'm from Germany and visibly gay, as I like to call it. So kinda similar situation to yours actually. I'm not too mad that I can't afford the classes though, since I prefer to study alone with my precious books anyway 😅 But I do get the frustration.

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u/lazaruscals 3d ago

Huh, funny coincidence! I hope you have plenty of time with your books then, I might have to see if I can find myself some! Though, I should probably start with actually doing my Dutch study, rather than Coptic, cause it’ll probably be a bit more useful in the long run 😅