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Most logical languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7098 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 73 of 143 22 August 2010 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think you'r right hgudus, there won't be a complete logic in languages. In Dutch there was a kind of humoristic poem, an attempt to adapt it to English would be: mouse / mice so the plural of house is hice :) . In Turkish you could not make such jokes very easily, however... so the plural of "ben" is "biz" , the plural of "maden" should be "madiz" :)
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| staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5690 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 74 of 143 22 August 2010 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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| galindo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5200 days ago 142 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Portuguese | Message 75 of 143 23 August 2010 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hmm, this thread makes me want to learn Turkish after Japanese. I had been interested in it before, but there are just so many more materials and media for Japanese that I chose that instead. I think I'll get around to it eventually.
I think that Japanese is definitely a contender for one of the logical languages. I only have two to compare it to, though. I like the particle markers that make it obvious what part of speech everything is, and the SOV order suits me for some reason. It doesn't seem to have as many unnecessary things like gendered nouns, conjugations for number and person, plurals, and articles. I don't know why people make a fuss about kanji, when really it's just a part of learning vocabulary, and actually makes it a lot easier to see how words are related to each other. I find it surprising how many people try to learn a bunch of kanji individually and then memorize the readings, when it's pretty simple to just learn them as you learn words. The readings come naturally after that, and then when you see a new word that has kanji you already know, you will be able to read it. Edited by galindo on 24 August 2010 at 1:57am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 5183 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 76 of 143 03 October 2010 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I vote for Arabic (MSA and classical);
100% phonetic (except for about 10 words). 100% regular word structure - so e.g. you know just from the structure of a word if it's a noun or verb (provided short vowels shown). 100% regular verb conjugation (except form I verbs where just the middle vowel needs learning by heart). Only two tenses - present and past. Future is a one letter prefix to the present tense. And lots more things like that. Edited by Andrew C on 03 October 2010 at 11:06pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5441 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 77 of 143 05 October 2010 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||
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Korean is a quite logical language in my opinion, both in terms of the grammar and the alphabet. But being a native speaker I am biased, so what say you, learners of it? Edited by chucknorrisman on 05 October 2010 at 1:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mikael84 Bilingual Pentaglot Groupie Peru Joined 5293 days ago 76 posts - 116 votes Speaks: French*, Finnish*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Arabic (classical), German, Russian | Message 78 of 143 11 October 2010 at 7:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't understand those people who mention MSA/classical Arabic. It is certainly the least logical language I have studied. It seems everything is irregular, nouns, verbs, everything.
Just a few examples: plurals of nouns (although sometimes you can guess the plural it is better to learn them by heart), numbers (from 3 to 10 if the noun is masculine then the number is feminine and the noun is plural with indirect case, however after 10 it is singular with direct case, etc etc crazy stuff), feminine/masculine (if the subject is a plural of a thing then the verb is singular feminine.. why?!!, if the verb is placed before the subject and the subject is plural then the verb stays singular, etc etc), tons of irregular verbs outside of the 10 regular schemes (qala, da3aa, baqiya, etc). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6004 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 79 of 143 11 October 2010 at 12:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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The most logical language would be the least logical language, paradoxical though that may be.
Human thought is not a mere expression of axiom logic. My father always quotes one of his university lecturers back in the 60s: "human beings don't think logically, they think psychologically." Our languages are illogical because they are evolved to suit the peculiarities of human consciousness. It would therefore be illogical to try to promote a logical language, as it would actually be harder than what we've got. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 5183 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 80 of 143 11 October 2010 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | ||
Arabic may appear illogical at first, but the more you study it the more logical it becomes. I'm talking about the internal logic of the language, not its adhering to preconceived ideas of logic (for example saying that a plural should be formed by adding a simple suffix to the singular). Yes, Arabic plurals are irregular, but when (as in Arabic) the plurals are ALL irregular and you just have to get used to learning them individually, that is actually a regularity. The numbers are horribly complicated, but they are still regular, once you know the rules. The verbs you mentioned are not irregular. There are logical rules governing the conjugation of all of them. There are no irregular verbs in Arabic, except for the middle vowel of form I verbs. But even in this latter case if you accept that this is something that always needs to be learned by heart, it becomes a regularity. Edited by Andrew C on 11 October 2010 at 4:37pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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