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Easiest Germanic language to study?

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tritone
Senior Member
United States
reflectionsinpo
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 Message 1 of 28
13 August 2009 at 7:55pm | IP Logged 
I'm anxious to study a Germanic language but I'm not sure which. Which is the easiest, or most similar to English? What is the most accessible in terms of good self-study resources available?

I've heard that Norwegian and Swedish are the easiest, because apparently there's not much grammar to learn at all, nearly everything works exactly the way it does in English, and you just have to learn vocabulary - which contrary to the grammar/syntax is largely unfamiliar. German and dutch, while no doubt more accessible, are supposed to be more different.

Can anybody who's familiar with these languages comment on the accuracy of those assessments??




















Edited by tritone on 13 August 2009 at 11:27pm

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Aeroflot
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 Message 2 of 28
13 August 2009 at 8:59pm | IP Logged 
Norwegian or Swedish would be easiest since they don't have the more complex system of declension that German does. Danish is a bit harder if only for the pronunciation. Icelandic is probably the most difficult because it retains the complex grammar of Old Norse. Dutch and Afrikaans are supposed to be pretty easy, with Afrikaans being the easier of the two since the verbs don't conjugate as much. As for being the closest to English, Frisian is pretty close to Old English.

Now I have only flirted with those languages once upon a time, but I've found that most people agree with those analyses.
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Lizzern
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 Message 3 of 28
13 August 2009 at 10:45pm | IP Logged 
Norwegian and Swedish are both tonal, so that adds to the difficulty for some people.

A friend of mine started learning Norwegian years ago and took a look at the relatively straightforward grammar and thought it would be easy peasy. He later took that back. The difficulty of Norwegian, well, it sneaks up on you.

And not all aspects of grammar are that simple - noun definiteness (!) and its related syntax is one thing that a lot of people have difficulty with.

Liz
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Aeroflot
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 Message 4 of 28
13 August 2009 at 11:39pm | IP Logged 
healing332 wrote:
You are approaching this all wrong and I can tell you that you will not be learning any Germanic Language.

Acquiring a new language takes dedication that most people do not have. THERE IS NO EASIEST LANGUAGE..

If you are taking about syntax and grammer why dont you just pick any Romance language..instead of trying to get people to pick the EASIEST for you ..

you also say in your profile that you are studying Spanish and another language..this is a joke ..and you will not be learning any language looking for the easiest anything. Sorry to be mean but I am telling you the truth..If you are on fire to learn Korean it will be easier than learning Norwegian without the passion .. You are doomed to fail


I agree with you, but he's just asking for whether or not his assessments are accurate or not, not whether his methodology is bad. Not everyone works the same way. He might be able to learn Spanish, Portuguese, and German at the same time.
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Sprachgenie
Decaglot
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 Message 5 of 28
14 August 2009 at 12:19am | IP Logged 
Dutch will be the easiest Germanic language for you to learn. Many more similarities to English than English has with German and Dutch grammar is simple and straightforward.
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ellasevia
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 Message 6 of 28
14 August 2009 at 12:19am | IP Logged 
Back to the original question...

I'd say that either Dutch or Swedish would be easiest (excluding Frisian and Afrikaans). Here is why.

Dutch - Other than Frisian, Dutch is the Germanic language that is the closest to English. Its grammar is not quite as complex as that of German, its vocabulary is quite similar, and the pronunciation is not difficult.

Swedish - Swedish grammar is quite simple in general and has only a few tricky spots. The vocabulary is similar, but more distant than that of Dutch. The pronunciation is very pleasing to the ear, and also relatively simple. Although it is tonal, I don't think that this is such a big problem as it may seem (correct me if I'm wrong).

If you are to choose one of the two described above based solely on pronunciation, I would personally go with Swedish. I love the bounciness of Swedish (and Norwegian too) and would take it any day instead of Dutch. That is not to say, though, that Dutch is not nice pronunciation-wise.
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Aeroflot
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 Message 7 of 28
14 August 2009 at 12:38am | IP Logged 
Yeah I was under the impression that the Swedish tonal system wasn't very difficult as long as you can pick up the rhythm pattern, which luckily is quite pronounced. Just pretend you're Inge from Sweden with Swedish meatballs and it shouldn't be too hard.
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vikramkr
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 Message 8 of 28
14 August 2009 at 12:41am | IP Logged 
healing332 wrote:
You are approaching this all wrong and I can tell you that you will
not be learning any Germanic Language.

Acquiring a new language takes dedication that most people do not have. THERE IS NO
EASIEST LANGUAGE..

If you are taking about syntax and grammer why dont you just pick any Romance
language..instead of trying to get people to pick the EASIEST for you ..

you also say in your profile that you are studying Spanish and another language..this
is a joke ..and you will not be learning any language looking for the easiest anything.
Sorry to be mean but I am telling you the truth..If you are on fire to learn Korean it
will be easier than learning Norwegian without the passion .. You are doomed to
fail


Frankly, I disagree with the whole "no language is easier than another" philosophy.
There are easier languages (obviously depending on the languages you know) than
others. For example, it is easier for an English speaker to learn Dutch, than it
is for him or her to learn Icelandic. It is easier for an English speaker to
learn Spanish, than it is for him or her to learn Romanian. Some languages have
grammars and vocabularies that are more similar to a native language. This thus makes
learning the target language easier.

And, many people on this forum are successfully able to study multiple languages
simultaneously. Dr. Arguelles suggests one do so, in fact.


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