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Most difficult Romance language? | ||
Tags: Romance Languages | Learning Strategy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Giordano Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7175 days ago 213 posts - 218 votes  3 sounds Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Cantonese, Greek | Message 9 of 18 11 August 2005 at 9:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would say that Romanian is the most remote major Romance Language, and receives little attention. Since so few people (anyone?) on the forum have learned it, we can't say for sure, although it seems to be the most complex, because of the Slavic/Balkan influence.
Spanish is pretty easy, with simple grammar, few exceptions, and simple spelling, etc..., plus fairly easy phonemes. Italian is also easy to pronounce, although it seems not quite as easy as Spanish in other areas. Catalan is a rising star among Romance Languages, it doesn't seem too difficult either (in terms of pronunciation- I don't know about grammar, etc...). I would also say Portuguese pronunciation seems hard (it seems like many people have problems with nasals), although I have but only dabbled, and spelling is less regular than Spanish. French spelling is hard, and, again, people seem to have difficulty with nasal sounds. It doesn't seem to me to be that hard, however it may only be the fact that I have so much exposure, therefore I abstain from commenting on it. Edited by Giordano on 11 August 2005 at 9:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Socrates Groupie United Kingdom Joined 7062 days ago 40 posts - 40 votes | Message 10 of 18 11 August 2005 at 10:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Of course I forgot about Romanian ?
It's the Galapagos Islands of Romance language developing in isolation. Being in the Balkans I heard it developed under the influence of Slavic forms and hence absorbed some of the syntax and vocabulary. There were even attempts to use the Cyrillic script in the past. If it's true that Romanian succumbed to influences from the east then it may take the crown. What about Corsican or Galician ? Are they languages in their own right ? Corsican speakers are rare ...could it be because it's so difficult ? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Al-Malik Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member United Kingdom arabicgenie.com Joined 7135 days ago 221 posts - 294 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German*, Spanish, Arabic (Written), Dutch, French, Arabic (classical) Studies: Mandarin, Persian | Message 11 of 18 11 August 2005 at 11:08am | IP Logged | |||||
Having spent a couple of weeks in La Corse the native language seems to be very similar to Italian, especially the way it sounds. While I had some problems understanding the Corse they speak on the radio, I had next to no problems understanding written material. Natives might frown at this, but to me Corse seemed to be closer to an Italian dialect than to a different language alltogether.
The language didn't strike me as particularly difficult and is probably on par with Italian. The reason why so few people speak the language is probably that the French government tried to marginalise the language for a long time. Also, the number of people who learn it as a second language is probably next to zero. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| morprussell Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7164 days ago 272 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 12 of 18 11 August 2005 at 11:11am | IP Logged | |||||
Galician is very similar to Portuguese, so I doubt that it could be considered the hardest romance language. Is Galician a language in its own right? It depends who you ask. Here is the Wikipeida article. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| axe02 Triglot Groupie Joined 7222 days ago 71 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, French | Message 13 of 18 11 August 2005 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I haven't tackled many romance languages, but I found Portuguese a lot easier than French. I'm surprised quite a few people find Portuguese the more difficult of the two. Mainly, I find Portuguese easier because the pronunciation is quite straightforward and much easier than French because there are few (if any) guttural sounds. In fact, there's very little I find problematic about the language compared to French. I believe that ease of pronunciation removes a HUGE mental barrier to progressing rapidly in acquiring a language. I found that's been part of the problem I had with French. I even found Japanese easier for this reason. Or maybe it's a just motivation problem. Sorry for the ramble :). Edited by axe02 on 11 August 2005 at 3:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Socrates Groupie United Kingdom Joined 7062 days ago 40 posts - 40 votes | Message 14 of 18 11 August 2005 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Have you tried Brazilian Portuguese axe2 ?
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| axe02 Triglot Groupie Joined 7222 days ago 71 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, French | Message 15 of 18 12 August 2005 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
I started off with "continental" Portuguese and then focused most of my learning exclusively on Brazilian Portuguese. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7029 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 16 of 18 28 August 2005 at 9:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would still think that French is the hardest (excluding Romanian and Portuguese, since I know practically nothing about them......), but actually it's not that bad. In fact, the spelling is easier than that in English. And sometimes I have problems pronouncing all the English's consonants, while in French a lot of them are silent, which makes it easier. (The French "rurale" and "juger" are still a pain to me) Edited by epingchris on 28 August 2005 at 9:47am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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