Atlantic-Congo
There's literally hundreds here, of course. I think I'd go with Fula/Pula(a)r/Fulfulde, though I don't know which dialect. It has a number of cool features. First of all, by being "Atlantic" (and specific Senegambian) it is hip. But it has a robust class system so I get to play with that (unlike say Yoruba). I'd choose one of the dialects with consonant mutation, since that's fun. And unlike most Atlantic-Congo languages, I wouldn't have to worry about tones.Going beyond linguistic reasons, I've recently become quite interested in the Sahel and its peoples. As one of the biggest and most widespread groups in the region, knowing some Fula might be useful in learning about them and working with them (especially since working in dev and agriculture might very well bring me to their region). And it sets me apart from all those numerous Hausa speakers, though there's dubious value in that.
Austronesian
Ahh yes, the one I could go on for ages about. And not just cause it has so many languages, but because I have a long history with it and lots of uses for it. And they're super cool structurally. Hell, I could do a whole post just on MP branches. Anyway, my choice for today though is pretty basic: Malagasy. First of all, it could be useful (for many of the same reasons as Fula, actually). But also it is just a cool language in and of itself. It has a (simplified) Philippine voice system to work with. It's phonology is whack, with all those voiceless vowels and stuff. And it has a visibility distinction for deictic system. Plus Madagascar would just be cool to visit.Indo-European
It's pretty lame that some people would have a lot of difficulty with this one. For me it's easy: Ossetian. I find most IE languages boring, but Indo-Iranian is one of the better branches. Ossetian is a Scythian language, which is pretty dope. Not to mention, it has ejectives now, making objectively one of the cooler IE languages. Add in the awesome ethnic flag and at least there is something here. Sure it is the most useless of the languages I've mentioned so far but not everything can be useful. Not sure about any particular grammar things of Ossetian but I'd guess it's pretty typically Iranian.Trans-Himalayan
I don't like using Sino-Tibetan even though that's what Glottolog uses. Anyway there's quite a few possibilities here. For this round I'll draft Burmese. It has some interesting sounds in its inventory and would be a decent introduction to tones, for one. It is also one of the more widely spoken non-Sinitic languages in the family, so there is some use. Plus for my line of work (once again) it is a fairly useful language to know and area to be acquainted with. As far as grammar is concerned, it is highly isolating which is fun for someone used to more inflection, yannow. Maybe anyway.Afro-Asiatic
Another hard one. In this case, I will go with Beja. Yeah sure if I wanted Cushtic something like Somali or Oromo would make more sense. But I gotta say that I am just fascinated by Beja and how there are relatively few sources (even for cushtic languages which are hard to find to say the least). I can't even say much about what's special with Beja, just that I would like to learn it. Tbf, it's not even the most hip Cushtic language (that would probably be Agaw or Iraqw or if you're really a conlanging trend follower, Dahalo). But they are desert pastoralists, which seems to be my thing.(Nuclear) Trans-New Guinea
As always, I try to think of a language before I look at a list. In this case, I am still able to do that. The language I choose is Nduga. This might seem like a really random one. Well, it is. But in this case, I have some personal reasons for it. I happen to know a guy from there, which is a good enough reason to learn a language. It is also undergoing a refugee crisis, which goes back to my whole background, in a way. Linguistically, I can't say much about it, there aren't many resources. I hear though that it is a very typical Dani language, and therefore typical for TNG. That means it has features like switch reference, lots of serial verbs, clause chaining and all those other things that make Papuan languages fun. But in the end, there just simply isn't much more I am able to say about it right now.Pama-Nyungan
This is going to be difficult. I simply can't remember many PN languages, let alone their names. Arrernte though, that has some weird features. Of course, that makes it really trendy to choose, but I can't be picky right now. The most interesting thing about Arrente is that it might have an underlying VC structure, which is more or less unique. It has a vertical (ish, at least) vowel system as well. As a PN language, it is non-configurational (iirc) which is cool as well. Not to mention some fun cases and noun extensions. At the very least it would be different (though as far as I am aware, classically PN). And it might be one of the more useful Aboriginal languages, because it is used in Alice Springs, not that I'd have any intention of living there. All that makes a decent case I guess.Otomanguean
This, like PN, is one where I have to choose based on memory and then see what I can do. So I can choose Zapotec. Unfortunately, I can't say much about it. Like other OM languages it is fairly isolated and has really funky tones. Both of those are cool. It's fairly isolating, which might notice is something I'm interested in (weird, I know). And yeah, that's actually all I can really say here.Austroasiatic
Finally one I have opinions about again. There's a lot I could choose from here. This round, I think I will go with Khasi, but it wasn't easy. Khasi was one of the first MK (using so that AA can go to Afro-Asiatic) languages I looked into, plus Northeast India is cool. If I recall correctly, it's a bit more agglutination than most non-Munda MK while still having that fairly analytic charm. It has noun incorporation that doesn't look much like incorporation on the surface (like even less so than Fijian, I think). Not nearly as insane as aslian languages, but still cool. And a bit more useful.Tai-Kadai
While the responsible answer would be Thai, Lao, Shan or Isan, I'm gonna say (Paha) Buyang. Why? Because it is an essential language in putting together the Austro-Tai hypothesis, which I've slowly come to think is pretty cool. It also has an insane consonant inventory (like well over 50 consonants I think). This might be the smallest and most endangered language I've chosen so far. Even more so than the very ill-defined Zapotec and possibly even Arrernte.Also I'm now in the families with less than 100 languages so I will probably stop soon.
Dravidian
Brahui, because it is the only northern one I can name off the top of my head. Also Pakistan. Dravidian languages in general are pretty cool, with lots of participial and stuff, so I don't think I would mind learning any of them.I'm gonna end here because I have 0 opinions on Arawakan and just do some honorable mentions.
- Mande: Manding because let's be real, Mandinka/Bambara/Dyula/Malinke are all very similar and more or less mutually intelligible. So that opens up a big portion of West Africa and the Sahel without having to learn French.
- Nilotic: Dinka, specifically Dinka Bor. This one was hard because there are a lot of Nilotic languages that are interesting but Dinka (Bor) has weird vowels, weird alignment and weird grammar in general. Like seriously, it supposedly has a voicing system like and three contrastive vowel lengths. This is totally a language worth knowing.
- Mayam: Kaqchikel because that's what my grandfather speaks. You know, I had a chance to take a semester of K'iche' but I didn't end up signing up. Regrets man, regrets.
- Timor-Alor-Pantar: I feel like I've read just a bit too much on Abui grammar, so let's go south and say Fataluku. Which I think is actually really different than Abui. Decently useful in timor though.
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