Have you done any ML-lineage languages before (ocaml, Haskell)? If yes, did you like it? If yes, the answer to your question is probably Rust. The thing about Rust is that it’s kind of this Frankenstein language with a lot of foundational influence coming from ML lineage languages (algebraic data types, traits, combinator heavy programming, etc) but with curly braces and memory management part unique (lifetimes) part modern C++ (smart pointers).

I see Zig as being a lot more in C tradition and lineage with nicer and safer memory management techniques. Also comptime (Lisp-ish there?)

My two cents