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Most logical languages

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Martien
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Senior Member
Netherlands
martienvanwanrooij.n
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Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French
Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 65 of 143
02 November 2007 at 8:17pm | IP Logged 
leosmith wrote:
What's yous guys's definition of logical then?

For me it is a language where the grammar can be deduced from fixed rules, without exceptions. However one can have different opinions about that. Farsi is a rather logical language but you usually have to learn two verb stems (present and past). So you could say that this is not logical, a logical rule would be : past tense puts a -t- between the stem and the personal ending but on the other hand, when you learn a language you have to learn words anyway so it can be still considered "logical" when you are aware that for a verb you will have to learn two words (i.e. the two stems).
You can go further: in Turkish the -ler/-lar ending is used for the plural of nouns like masa, masa-lar (table - tables). But this is not true for personal pronouns, ben = "I, me" but "we" is not "*ben-ler", it is "biz". So if you say that "Turkish plural forms are regular" , you could argue that they are not. :) Personally I think languages can never be as logical as maths of physics, although my favourite languages are those that can be learned by grammar rules with few exceptions.
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quendidil
Diglot
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Singapore
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Speaks: Mandarin, English*
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 Message 66 of 143
03 November 2007 at 1:32am | IP Logged 
I'd say the most logical language in existence would be Ithkuil. It's a conlang though. http://web.archive.org/web/20070713093101/http://home.inreac h.com/sl2120/Ithkuil/
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Captain Haddock
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
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 Message 67 of 143
04 November 2007 at 1:10am | IP Logged 
Martien wrote:
leosmith wrote:
What's yous guys's definition of logical then?

For me it is a language where the grammar can be deduced from fixed rules, without exceptions. However one can have different opinions about that. Farsi is a rather logical language but you usually have to learn two verb stems (present and past). So you could say that this is not logical, a logical rule would be : past tense puts a -t- between the stem and the personal ending but on the other hand, when you learn a language you have to learn words anyway so it can be still considered "logical" when you are aware that for a verb you will have to learn two words (i.e. the two stems).
You can go further: in Turkish the -ler/-lar ending is used for the plural of nouns like masa, masa-lar (table - tables). But this is not true for personal pronouns, ben = "I, me" but "we" is not "*ben-ler", it is "biz". So if you say that "Turkish plural forms are regular" , you could argue that they are not. :) Personally I think languages can never be as logical as maths of physics, although my favourite languages are those that can be learned by grammar rules with few exceptions.


It sounds like you're equating "logic", then, with an elegant and systematic morphology. In that case, I think Japanese is a strong contender. However, no doubt many people will contest this as a meaningful measure of how logical a language is. I once read an argument by someone who claimed English was more logical than Asian languages because English conjunctions (mainly 'and' and 'or') closely resembled predicate logic operators. But why, I asked, would Japanese then be "illogical", when it has a broader selection of conjunctions that express more nuances of meaning?
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KLover
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Brazil
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 Message 68 of 143
04 November 2007 at 1:32am | IP Logged 
Going by what Martien said, Japanese is then very logic indeed.
For example, the unpolite past form, always ends in -ta, the polite past in -mash ita, and so on.


Edited by KLover on 04 November 2007 at 1:35am

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lloydkirk
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United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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 Message 69 of 143
04 November 2007 at 6:16pm | IP Logged 
Perhaps I'm alone, but I find German to be very logical. The pronunciation is phonetic, the grammar is laid out very pleasantly, irregular verbs are minimal.
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FrozenNorth
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United Kingdom
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 Message 70 of 143
06 November 2007 at 3:20pm | IP Logged 
Esperanto, but then I suppose it was designed to be. Being a native speaker Finnish still baffles me at times but I'd consider it pretty logical, there's only really one-and-a-half irregular verbs and it's phonetic.

Logic takes some of the fun out of language learning, sure it makes it easier but quirks real give a language character. All in my own humble opinion anyway.
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hgudus
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Turkey
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 Message 71 of 143
22 August 2010 at 6:04pm | IP Logged 
But this is not true for personal pronouns, ben = "I, me" but "we" is not "*ben-ler", it
is "biz". So if you say that "Turkish plural forms are regular" , you could argue that
they are not. :) Personally I think languages can never be as logical as maths of
physics, although my favourite languages are those that can be learned by grammar rules
with few exceptions.[/QUOTE]

the word we 'biz' does include not only i but also you maybe much more.we'biz' and
y'all'siz' are
shortened form of old turkish suffixes.

Edited by hgudus on 22 August 2010 at 6:06pm

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staf250
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Belgium
emmerick.be
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 Message 72 of 143
22 August 2010 at 6:15pm | IP Logged 
@hgudus
At which post is your text answering, please?


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