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Abkhaz: 58 consonants and 2 vowels | ||
Tags: Caucasian languages | Phonetics | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6106 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 1 of 4 13 July 2011 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spotted this 'fact of the day' on BBC homepage:
"Abkhaz, spoken in the Caucasus, is said to be the world's hardest language to learn, with 70 sounds but only two vowels. Each verb has several million forms." Other notable features: Large alphabet of 62 letters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkha z_alphabet) Based on a modified Cyrillic alphabet Agglutinative Very complex 'polysynthetic' verb system Simple noun system of 2 cases (nominative and adverbial) Caucasian language mostly spoken in Georgia About 100,000 speakers If you're brave enough to learn it see: http://learn.apsni.com/index.php?lang= en Wiki link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhaz_l anguage Abkhaz rock (I hope! maybe Georgian?) http://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=ffWafGkQlG4n Abkhaz dubbed cowboy clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAxp3v8Nj1M The Cacasus is home to many varied but distinct languages, a veritable treasure trove. Edited by Mooby on 13 July 2011 at 2:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DNB Bilingual Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4887 days ago 47 posts - 80 votes Speaks: Finnish*, Estonian*, English | Message 2 of 4 14 July 2011 at 3:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow... And I thought Korean was difficult with their extra consonsants, it won't even
compare to this. And millions of verbs? How is that even possible... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5047 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 3 of 4 14 July 2011 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Just FYI, that video is completely in Russian. And the alphabet wiki link, clearly gives half a dozen vowels, with several consonants containing near vowel sounds. But a cool language nonetheless, no doubt. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 4 of 4 15 July 2011 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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So your mouth must feel really sore after practicing this language! Fascinating...
About the million verb forms, isn't it that way with all polysynthetic languages? That is like saying a sentence has several million forms, since, according to my understanding, in a polysynthetic language, a word or couple of words can contain the meaning of an entire sentence in more isolating languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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