I learned Erlang before learning (of) Elixir as someone who'd only used C-like languages after an acquaintance recommended it for a project I was working on.

The thing that seemed magical about Erlang was how efficient it's syntax managed to be without being ambiguous. In a weekend I picked up the syntax, and in days I was being productive with it.

I've heard Elixir described as "Rubyfied-Erlang" which would explain why I don't particularly love it, since I don't love Ruby syntax (and I secretly harbor a tiny bit of resentment for Elixir for taking off and essentially cementing Erlang's place outside the spotlight), but it's not bad either and doesn't add that much syntax.

And it's not like the syntax of C-like languages hasn't evolved towards something that looks "different" anyways. Lambdas + Rx/Promises + Streams practically looks like it's own language in most C-like languages...