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What is the difficulty of Gujarati? | ||
Tags: Gujarati | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Slovak_anglo Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/deliver Joined 5430 days ago 87 posts - 100 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Slovak | Message 1 of 9 29 May 2010 at 3:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey everyone,
I was just wondering how difficult gujarati is? I can speak English(native) and German(basic fluency..improving every day;) EDIT: reason I'm asking is because of my friend...(she wants me to learn it) Edited by Slovak_anglo on 29 May 2010 at 4:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ateo Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5868 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Italian, Spanish, English* Studies: Portuguese, Gujarati | Message 2 of 9 29 May 2010 at 5:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've recently started to study a little Gujarati, so my first impression is:
It seems pretty similar to Hindi (same Sanskrit roots), with a similar but unique alphabet. It seems to have had a more profound influence of Persian, Arabic and Turkish (logical considering its westerly proximity to the country) -- "shukriyad" (Arabic roots) is used more often than its synonym "danyavad" (Sanskrit roots) for "thank you" if that tells you anything. The US military's Defense Language Institute classifies Hindi as slightly more difficult than German to learn for an English-speaker (as a level 2 language according to http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wbaxter/howhard.html). I'd say Gujarati is in the same category as Hindi, they aren't much different (maybe like the Romance languages). If you already speak German you will feel at home with the SOV word order. Since both English and German are Indoeuropean languages many of the words even share the same roots with words in Gujarati: My name is Karl. Mein Name ist Karl. Maru naam Karl che. I've only barely begun to start studying this language, so other viewpoints or criticisms are welcomed. Also, would appreciate if people could post good online or offline learning resources for this language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Slovak_anglo Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/deliver Joined 5430 days ago 87 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Slovak | Message 3 of 9 29 May 2010 at 5:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thankyou. I'm feeling it will be easy for me since my friend spoke gujarati before she spoke English, its a huge bonus. Don't you think?
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6330 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 9 29 May 2010 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have never heard anyone use "shukriyad" in Gujarati. "Dhanyavad" is used, though now a days you are more likely to hear "Thank you". However, "Dhanyavad" is definitely the "proper" Gujarati word.
Hindi and Gujarati are very similar, though from personal experience I have found that it is much easier for Gujarati speakers to pick up Hindi, than for Hindi speakers to pick up Gujarati. It might be because the whole of India is exposed to more Hindi medium through Bollywood and TV. The scripts are slightly different, but still similar enough that if you learn one, it shouldn't be too difficult to learn the other. But overall for the English speaker, if you can handle different script, the language itself should not be "too" difficult. Certainly nothing like learning Mandarin or Japanese for example. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Slovak_anglo Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/deliver Joined 5430 days ago 87 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Slovak | Message 5 of 9 30 May 2010 at 1:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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What do you think are the most difficult parts of the language are?
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| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6330 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 9 30 May 2010 at 11:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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The script would definitely be the one, seeing as you have to learn completely
different writing system. For native English speakers, dealing with Genders is often an issue, when they just can't think of objects "IT" in terms of "HE" or "SHE". But as you speak German that should not be an issue for you. Though again, I think it would be an issue initially in writing, because you have different diacritical marks for "o" "a" "i" sound etc. As for spoken Gujarati, I believe the pronunciation should be fairly easy to pick up (not perhaps with a native accent, but certainly enough to make you understood). Sorry I can't say how hard it would exactly for you to learn it as I have never had to learn it as a foreign language, and don't know anyone who has done it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Slovak_anglo Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/deliver Joined 5430 days ago 87 posts - 100 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Slovak | Message 7 of 9 31 May 2010 at 5:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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I figured the script would be hard. Although I'm very glad my friend is a native speaker. It should help a lot.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emerald Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom languagedabbler.blog Joined 6330 days ago 316 posts - 340 votes Speaks: Hindi, Gujarati*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 9 31 May 2010 at 11:57am | IP Logged | |||||
If you can, try to get some alphabet writing practice books that are designed for Gujarati children. They should help A LOT in terms of getting used to the script and the alphabet. Something like this for example - http://www.desikids.co.uk/kakka-shikshan-gujarati- alphabet-writing-p-195.html 1 person has voted this message useful |
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