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Most difficult IE Language? | ||
Tags: Indo-European Languages | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ChristianVlcek Bilingual Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5861 days ago 131 posts - 141 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Slovak*, Ukrainian, Irish, German, Russian | Message 33 of 69 25 June 2010 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't know about Czech, but in Slovak (closely related) there are certain endings that are repeated between different cases. I think that looking at a language based on numbers like case endings and such can be misleading, and tends to make a proverbial mountain out of a mole hill. Moreover, once you get accustomed to the sounds of verbs, nouns and adjectives, you pick up pretty fast what ending goes with which declension pattern. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5318 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 34 of 69 26 June 2010 at 2:12am | IP Logged | |||||
I just looked up the same for Polish: - 55 noun declension patterns (with 11 exceptions) * 5 genders (each gender uses a different set of patterns) And I've got one question concerning Czech verbs. Are there also 3 types of verbs as regards their progressiveness? What I mean is this (in Polish): 1. idę - I'm going (right now) 2. chodzę - I go (generally) 3. chadzam - I go (every now and again) Not all Polish verbs have seperate forms to express all of the three "tenses". Most do only two: 1. płynę - I'm swimming 2. pływam - I swim (generally) 1. niosę - I'm carrying 2. noszę - I carry 1/2. czytam - I'm reading/I read (generally) 3. czytuję - I read (every now and again) 1/2. mam - I'm having/I have (generally) 3. miewam - I have (every now and again) Edited by Derian on 26 June 2010 at 2:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5679 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 35 of 69 26 June 2010 at 7:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, very similar things exists in Czech (with minor differences of course). For many verbs there are different roots for once, generally, and sporadic. For other verbs there are only two, and for some verbs only one. Please note, my post wasn't trying to say "Czech is the hardest". Quite the opposite, I was saying Czech has a very simple script but a very complicated grammar, so that different languages are hard in a variety of ways and it also depends where your starting point is. To give an example, I have (by coincidence) been learning Polish as a secret side project, and my rate of progress is quite fast - but this is because I already have gone through the pain of Czech. Both languages are quite similar in the simplicity of their script and the complexity of their grammar. Edited by Splog on 26 June 2010 at 7:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6712 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 36 of 69 26 June 2010 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Since you've been studying both, can you give your opinion on which is harder to learn? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Euphorion Hexaglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5350 days ago 106 posts - 147 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Czech, EnglishC2, GermanC1, SpanishC2, French | Message 37 of 69 27 June 2010 at 10:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Definitely Czech
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6713 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 38 of 69 27 June 2010 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Albanian has been mentioned in this thread. Actually I bought a couple of bilingual city guides plus a dictionary in this language last fall, and I didn't find it too difficult to make sense of the Albanian text. I also shocked a museum employee in Durrës by translating most of an informational plate about the Illyrians at sight, based on a number of international loanwords in the text and some knowledge about the local history. So I can't see why Albanian should be that hard to learn.
Personally I would still settle for a Celtic language like Irish. Edited by Iversen on 27 June 2010 at 1:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5842 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 39 of 69 27 June 2010 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
In my opinion Polish is harder than Czech. Pronunciation is more difficult, the verbal system is slightly more complex, given that verbs have endings for each person in the past, not to mention the change in roots which occur in some verbs in the virile and non-virile forms. And the number system is also more complex. Numbers change according to whether they refer to nouns which are animate or non animate, virile or non virile and mixed gender. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5857 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 40 of 69 27 June 2010 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is a very important point. For example Russian maybe very difficult to learn for me personally but it's an easy language for speakers of Polish or Czech. From my backgound of languages Gaelic languages and Slavic languages would be very difficult to learn, whereas Finnish and Hungarian would be easier to learn because I already know quite a dosis of Turkish grammar and I am somewhat familiar with agglutination. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 27 June 2010 at 1:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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