* "Obscure" is subjective: What's obscure to one person might be familiar to another, depending on their background and interests.
* Language vitality is complex: Some languages are considered endangered, meaning they have few speakers and are at risk of extinction. Others are simply less widely spoken or documented.
However, some languages often cited as being extremely obscure include:
* Languages with very small numbers of speakers: These might be confined to a single village or even a single family. Examples include:
* Akha: Spoken by about 100,000 people in Southeast Asia, but with dialects so diverse they are often considered separate languages.
* Arára: Spoken by around 150 people in Brazil.
* Tanema: Spoken by only a handful of people in Papua New Guinea.
* Languages with limited documentation: These might have no written form or very little research done on them. This could include:
* Languages spoken by isolated tribes: Especially in remote regions like the Amazon rainforest or New Guinea.
* Languages that have gone extinct: This can make them obscure as there might be only limited records of them.
It's important to remember that even obscure languages are valuable and important. They represent cultural diversity and unique ways of thinking and speaking.