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Most logical languages

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
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koba
Heptaglot
Senior Member
AustriaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5655 days ago

118 posts - 201 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, French

 
 Message 89 of 143
26 October 2010 at 4:59pm | IP Logged 
So far, from the languages I've studied, Hungarian is by far the most logical. I don't believe when people keep saying it's a difficult language, while actually everything can be figured out without much struggle in this language. The only thing is that you will need some time to get your mind around the vowel harmony, which is a key factor to master the language.

Apart from that, he alphabet is totally logical, the plural forms, the verbal conjugations and the postpositions/suffixes are to a large extent regular. The vocabulary can also be enlarged with ease.

About the difficulty? Well, The words are totally alien and hungarians can speak quite fast, but here it has nothing to do with logic but rather simply being familiar with it.

Edited by koba on 26 October 2010 at 6:22pm

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Tigro
Triglot
Newbie
Germany
Joined 4731 days ago

1 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: German*, Esperanto, English
Studies: Italian, Russian

 
 Message 90 of 143
17 May 2011 at 3:05pm | IP Logged 
What is logic? Scientifically spoken there is only one logic, as far as I know; the mathematical logic. From this perspective human languages are not logical at all. They would be very inflexible and hence impractical, if they were. I would rather ask: to which degree language use follows the principle of analogy. In other words, the question is: if there are rules, does they apply to all lingusitic phenomena of the same kind? In this regard Esperanto comes apparently very close to the ideal.
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Préposition
Diglot
Senior Member
France
aspectualpairs.wordp
Joined 4901 days ago

186 posts - 283 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishC1
Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine)

 
 Message 91 of 143
17 May 2011 at 4:51pm | IP Logged 
I reckon Arabic is only logical because they turn all their exceptions into rules. It's definitely not more logical than
many other languages.
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tritone
Senior Member
United States
reflectionsinpo
Joined 5907 days ago

246 posts - 385 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French

 
 Message 92 of 143
17 May 2011 at 7:18pm | IP Logged 
Captain Haddock wrote:
In Canada, we say "you guys" regardless of the gender of those being addressed. "Y'all" sounds hopelessly outlandish.

However, "you" is still used very frequently for the plural.


Anglish FTW!! Spread the word!

I've now seen sundry folk throughout the internet benote/brook the word "outlandish". If we slip in more of these words little by little, they'll start to sound more 'everyday'.

Maybe even English spelling will become more regular/logical without so many outlandish words like "foreign".

By the way, I say "you all".

Edited by tritone on 17 May 2011 at 7:22pm

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PaulLambeth
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5160 days ago

244 posts - 315 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish

 
 Message 93 of 143
28 October 2011 at 1:00am | IP Logged 
tritone wrote:
Captain Haddock wrote:
In Canada, we say "you guys" regardless of the gender of those being addressed. "Y'all" sounds hopelessly outlandish.

However, "you" is still used very frequently for the plural.


Anglish FTW!! Spread the word!

I've now seen sundry folk throughout the internet benote/brook the word "outlandish". If we slip in more of these words little by little, they'll start to sound more 'everyday'.

Maybe even English spelling will become more regular/logical without so many outlandish words like "foreign".

By the way, I say "you all".


There's a third one I'd like to add to this: yous. It's used a lot in Ireland, and some of Britain too. I like to promote a distinctive plural form of you; it can be ambiguous, especially when 'you' is also commonly used for 'one' as in 'if one goes out'.

Outlandish is a lovely word to hear. Útlendingur (literally, outlander) is the word for foreigner in Icelandic. Lots of cognates like that have fallen out of use.

I'd like to add Swahili to the list of logical languages. From what little I studied of it, it had useful gender assignment and a logical match with the adjective. Finnish is also up there. Case markings in general help me piece together sentences, so I prefer those for logic ahead of languages which don't mark for case, and rely on a very strict word order. Additionally, having verbs (and other groups) identifiable in a sentence without knowing what they mean is a blessing. English has lost that; Icelandic and, well, most other languages I've looked at have maintained it.
1 person has voted this message useful



strikingstar
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4960 days ago

292 posts - 444 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 94 of 143
28 October 2011 at 3:11am | IP Logged 
PaulLambeth wrote:
I'd like to add Swahili to the list of logical languages. From what
little I studied of it, it had useful gender assignment and a logical match with the
adjective.


Are you referring to the noun classes?
As in: Vitabu vyangu hivyo vizuri
viwili nimevyosoma. (Those two good books which I have read.)

It is very logical. I agree. Once you know the rules, everything makes sense and you'll
always have an easy time navigating the language. But noun classes are hardly unique to
Swahili, it's a staple of Bantu languages.

Edited by strikingstar on 28 October 2011 at 3:14pm

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Remster
Diglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
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Studies: German, French

 
 Message 95 of 143
28 October 2011 at 12:20pm | IP Logged 
I think languages that rely on case systems are more logical.
That doesn't mean they're easier, but they have less exceptions and are more bound
by the roles of their respective cases.
1 person has voted this message useful



Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4843 days ago

2096 posts - 2972 votes 
Speaks: Russian*

 
 Message 96 of 143
28 October 2011 at 1:05pm | IP Logged 
Remster wrote:
I think languages that rely on case systems are more logical.
That doesn't mean they're easier, but they have less exceptions and are more bound
by the roles of their respective cases.

Really???


1 person has voted this message useful



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