The loneliest people in the world.

We all know that English and Mandarin are the most spoken languages in the world. With English the Lingua-Franca and China with such a large population, its not a hard concept to grasp. These languages are so well known and most people know at least one English word or expression, even if it is the embarrassingly bogan 'G'day mate'. But who knows what Zulu, Aina, Bikya, Eyak or Ket is? These are the smallest languages in the world, spoken by the loneliest people imaginable, and they're the topic I have chosen to research. The number or speakers for these languages range from below 50 to a mere 10, or in the most extreme cases, only 1 speaker. WOW. What a lonely life that would be !

A woman living on the Cameroon-Nigeria border is believed to be the last speaker of 'Bikya', also known as 'Furu'. This is a small tribal language that originated somewhere in Cameroon. A short film of an elderly African woman was taped by an English linguist, Dr. Dalby, so a small part of this language would be captured forever. This was AFTER research was done to say there was only 4 speakers left in 1986, (one of whom is fluent) so hopefully we haven't seen the last of Bikya yet. It must be so upsetting for that woman though, to have so many words to say and no-one to say them to. Maybe if people of the world STOPPED looking at language as 'a way to get ahead' financially and technologically and STOPPED putting all their effort into learning English, Mandarin and Spanish, they could START focusing on and recording their OWN beautiful native languages and then hopefully we could preserve the languages and prevent further extinction. It's not that hard people, PRESERVE AND PREVENT!